AN  ADVENTURE  IN  PHOTOGRAPHY 

ILLUSTRATED   FROM   PHOTOGRAPHS 
BY  THE   ADVENTURERS 


BY   THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 

STORIES    OF    A    WESTERN    TOWN. 

Illustrated   by   A.  B.  Frost,     umo,     .     $i  25 

EXPIATION. 

Illustrated    by      A.     B.     Frost.       iimo, 

paper,   50  cents  ;    cloth,       . 
AN    ADVENTURE    IN     PHOTOGRAPHY. 

With  numerous  illustrations,  nmo.  Net  1.5° 


(See  p.   152.) 


*  *    V    AN    ADVENTURE     IN 
PHOTOGRAPHY       *       *        > 

*  *        BY  OCTAVE  THANET 

ILLUSTRATED   FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS 
BY   THE  ADVENTURERS          >•          * 


*       CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
NEW  YORK     1893        >       *       * 


COPYRIGHT,  1893,  BY 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

Showing  How  we  Meant  Well,  i 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Composition  of  a  Picture;  or,  Our  Ground- 
Glass  Double  and  How  it  Undid  Us  !  .  .18 

CHAPTER  III 
A  Makeshift  Studio,        ......     55 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  Negative,  Its  Mark  ;  a  Long  Chapter,  including 
The  Photographic  Sky,  Can  we  Save  It?  White 
Light  Development,  Orthochromatic  Plates, 
Films,  the  Various  Plates  and  Developers,  and 
the  Limitations  of  the  Instantaneous  Shutter,  .  44 

vii 


Contents 


CHAPTER   V 

PAC£ 

Printing  :  With  a  Truthful  Account  of  the  Misde- 
meanors of  Different  Papers  ;  Also,  Our  Edu- 
cation in  the  Blue  Paper  and  Our  Wrestle 
with  the  Aristotype,  .....  88 

CHAPTER  1/1 

Printing  by  'Development  ;  How  we  Conquered  the 
"Brilliant  Bromide  and  How  the  Peaceful  Pla- 
tinotype  Conquered  Us,  .....  121 

CHAPTER   Vll 
Interiors,         ........  138 

CHAPTER   yill 
Portraits;  a  Confession,         .....   /45 


CHAPTER  IX 
Tricks, 


CHAPTER  X 
To  Amateurs  Only,         .        .        .  /  .        .772 


viii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Lamed" Frontispiece 

The  Gateway,          .        .        ,        .         .         .  Title 

FACING   PAGE 

The  Black  River, / 

[  Taken  •with  a  $10  Waterbury  Lens.] 

"Once  the  Focusing  Cloth  Slipped,"       .        .        .        8 
Running  Water, 12 

[  Waterbury  Lens.} 

Milking  Time,         .        .        .        .        .        .        .14 

[Scene  of  our  Second  Picture,  taken  Later.} 

"  The  other  Picture  was  a  Cypress  Brake,"    .        .16 

"  The  Picture  of  the  Boys  Resting  in  the  Shade,".  18 

"  Those  Black  Children  in  the  Foreground,"          .  20 

"  We  Cut  Off  the  Distorted  Parts  of  the  Picture."  22 
"  Those   Black   Citizens   that   we   Caught  with  the 

Shutter  at  the  Boat  Landing,"        .        .        .  24 

An  Arkansas  Renter' s  Cabin,        ....  26 

ix 


List  of  Illustrations 


"Jane's  Flight  of  Fancy," 28 

At  Sunset,      . 30 

Where  we  Threw  the  Lantern,        .        .        .  38 

A  Good  Lighting,    .......      46 

A  'Bad  Lighting, .48 

"  Ducks  Got  Away !"    .        .        .  .        .      52 

\0rthochromatic  Sky.} 

A  Summer  Sky, -54 

[A  Car  butt  Eclipse  Sky.] 

A  Gypsy  Camp, 56 

[Seeds  26  Sky.} 

A  Southern  Kitchen,       .        .        .        .        .        .      58 

{We  Reduced  the  Window  and  the  Table-cloth.} 

"  The  Wagon   and  Six   Oxen  had   Toiled  Through 

the  Swamp," .68 

Weighing  the  Cotton, 72 

[Instantaneous  White  Light  Negative.} 

A    Country  Road, go 

[  White  Light  Negative.} 

"They  Went  by  the  Black  River  Road,"       .        .    702 

In  Overflow  Time, .124 

A  Library  Corner,          .        .        ,        .        .        .138 

Interior  with  Fireplace, 142 

x 


List  of  Illustrations 


FACING    PAGE 

How  tbe  Focus  betrays, 146 

How  We  ^Betray  tbe  Focus, 148 

The  Sunday-School  Class, 750 

Harry, 752 

[Grass  as  a  Background.} 

The  Great  Southern  Problem,         .        .        .        -154 

[Size  of  Figure  for  Landscape  Lens.] 

The  Lonely  Cabin, 779 


AN 
ADVENTURE  IN  PHOTOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER  I 

SHOWING   HOW    WE    MEANT   WELL 

WHEN  my  kind  friends,  the  publishers,  first  proposed 
this  book  to  me,  I  at  once  laid  the  proposition  before 
my  partner. 

Jane  and  I  have  taken  photographs,  developed  pho- 
tographs, printed  and  mounted  photographs,  together, 
for  four  years. 

"  But  we  don't  know  enough  to  write  a  book," 
said  Jane. 

"  And  they  want  us  to  illustrate  it  with  our  own 
photographs,"  I  continued,  under  the  impetus  of  my 
first  burst  of  information,  although  I  felt  a  distinct 
shock,  similar  to  the  feeling  produced  by  unexpected 
cold  water. 

"  But  we  don't  make  good  enough  photographs  to 
illustrate  a  book,"  said  Jane. 

I  did  not  discuss  the  question  of  fact;  Jane  has  a 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


great  deal  on  her  side  of  the  argument,  as  the  ash-barrel 
and  I  know  better  than  any  one ;  I  retreated  in  good 
order  and  made  a  flank  movement. 

"  We  have  failed  in  so  many  different  and  unex- 
pected ways,"  I  urged,  "  I  think  it  would  be  interesting 
and — and  profitable  to  amateur  photographers  to  read 
about  them  ;  I  know  we  should  have  been  very  grateful 
to  get  a  book  that  did  not  say  a  word  about  the  scien- 
tific action  of  the  developer,  or  have  all  the  higher 
mathematics  in  tow  about  the  exposures  and  the 
shutter/' 

"  Well,  maybe,"  Jane  admitted ;  "  but  I  don't  want 
to  pretend  to  be  photographic  swells  when  all  we  can  do 
is  to  make  passable  pictures." 

Therefore  this  little  book  makes  no  pretension  to 
authority,  neither  can  it  claim  any  original  discoveries; 
it  is  simply  the  record  of  the  failures  and  good  fortunes 
of  two  amateurs,  forced  by  circumstances  to  depend  con- 
siderably upon  their  own  ingenuity;  and  shows  what 
may  be  done  by  any  amateur  student,  without  a  verv 
large  expenditure  of  money  or  of  time. 

If  nothing  else  shall  be  accomplished,  the  author 
fondly  hopes  that  it  will  reveal  the  moral  possibilities  of 
photography  as  the  Educator,  I  may  say  the  Compel ler, 
of  the  sterner  and  simpler  virtues  that  a  luxurious  Jin 
de  siecle  discourages.  The  photographer — especially 
the  amateur,  for  the  professional  photographer  has  con- 


Showing  how  we  Meant  Well 

veniences — must  be  a  stoic,  not  heeding  cold,  heat, 
mosquitoes,  strange  dogs  sniffing  a  sinister  sniff  at  his 
heels,  or  cows  playfully  charging  down  the  middle  dis- 
tance with  lowered  horns,  or  gurgling  and  flaring  and 
bursting  red  lanterns,  or  peril,  or  exasperation,  or  de- 
spair. He  must  be  orderly  and  exact.  He  must  have 
exceeding  patience  and  a  good  deal  of  muscle.  He 
must  be  slow  of  faith,  following  the  advice  of  the  apostle 
and  "  trying  all  things ; "  but  holding  fast  to  a  very 
few.  I  don't  say  that  he  should  be  modest,  because 
modesty  is  a  virtue  likely  to  force  herself  upon  him 
whether  he  wills  or  no,  particularly  if  he  attempt  to 
join  a  camera  club. 

When  I  consider  the  further  benefit  of  the  art-science 
to  the  character,  by  its  action  as  a  spiritual  re-agent, 
detecting  faults  of  temper  and  habit  of  which  the  pos- 
sessor, but  for  this  bitter  but  salutary  enlightenment, 
might  never  be  aware,  it  almost  seems  to  me  that  it 
ought  to  be  taught  in  all  the  theological  schools,  as  a 
sort  of  moral  annex. 

Our  own  introduction  to  photography  was  quite 
unpremeditated.  My  friend's  mother  and  I  gave  Jane 
a  camera  for  a  present.  We  read  some  especially  glow- 
ing advertisements,  and  we  were  captured.  At  this  time 
we  were  spending  the  winter  on  an  Arkansas  plantation, 
owned  jointly  by  my  friends  and  a  gentleman  of  Arkan- 
sas who  manages  the  plantation.  The  planter  was  going 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

to  St.  Louis  to  buy  goods  for  the  plantation  store ;  he 
agreed  to  buy  a  camera  at  the  same  time.  He  returned 
with  a  Rochester  Optical  Company's  Model  Camera, 
with  all  the  accompaniments  thereof,  and  a  quantity  of 
miscellaneous  information  obtained  from  an  obliging 
young  man  who  sold  the  camera.  The  lens  was  a 
Waterbury  lens,  and  the  illustrations  of  this  chapter 
are  all  taken  by  this  lens,  during  our  first  winter  at  the 
camera.  The  year  following,  we  bought  a  handsome 
fifty-dollar  camera  and  a  fifty-dollar  lens,  an  Ortho- 
graphic lens  a  size  larger  than  the  camera,  to  counteract 
distortion.  The  first  camera  only  cost  twenty -six 
dollars.  With  it,  included  in  the  price,  was  the  usual 
photographic  outfit  of  humble  life:  a  dozen  five-by- 
eight  plates,  a  dozen  half  plates,  a  developing  tray,  a 
printing  tray,  a  washing  tray,  a  fixing  tray,  a  slide 
holder,  a  printing  frame,  a  bottle  of  developer,  a  bottle 
of  toning  fluid,  some  hyposulphite  of  soda  for  fixing,  a 
package  of  blue  paper,  and  a  package  of  that  albumen- 
coated  paper  which  our  English  cousins  call  preserved 
paper. 

"  Where  are  we  going  to  have  a  studio?  "  one  of  us 
ventured  to  ask;  "don't  we  need  some  place  to  do  the 
pictures  in,  Madonna?" 

"  Oh,  no,"  said  Jane,  cheerfully.  There  was  a  little 
book  in  the  outfit.  There  is  always  a  little  book 
inclosed  in  these  outfits,  by  some  thoughtful  inanufact- 


Showing  how  we  Meant  Well 


urer  of  photographic  implements.  It  is  devoted  to  the 
encouragement  of  the  amateur  and  the  glorification  of 
the  special  brand  of  goods  of  the  aforesaid  missionary 
manufacturer.  Jane  knew  our  little  book  by  heart. 
She  had  mastered  all  its  platitudes  about  how  grateful 
we  ought  to  feel  for  our  five  senses,  how  beautiful  is 
nature,  and  how  careful  we  must  be  about  getting 
hyposulphite  of  soda  into  anything. 

"  Oh,  no,"  says  Jane,  brimming  over  with  little  book 
lore;  "it  says"  (she  always  spoke  of  the  little  book  as 
It,  just  as  some  women  always  speak  of  their  husbands 
as  He!)  "it  says  any  dark  closet  will  do,  or,  if  you 
don't  have  a  dark  closet,  any  room  at  night.  It  says  the 
kitchen  is  very  convenient,  because  of  the  running 
water  and  the  pans." 

"But  aren't  your  mixtures  poisonous?"  says  Ma- 
donna, a  little  dubiously. 

"  Deadly,"  comes  from  the  other  member  of  the  firm. 
"Your  little  book  is  an  out-and-out  assassin!" 

Nevertheless,  how  many  poisons  have  gone  down 
our  kitchen  sink  I  shudder  to  compute.  Jane  said 
they  went  down  into  the  drain,  and  that  it  was  only 
once  in  a  while  we  left  what  the  doctors  call  a  lethal 
draught,  standing  about,  and  that  she  was  very  particu- 
lar whenever  she  used  the  kitchen  spoons  to  stir  our 
oxalate  of  potash  (a  very  little  of  which  taken  into  the 
human  system  goes  a  great  way,  I  am  informed)  to 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

cleanse  them  thoroughly  afterwards,  and  she  always 
covered  the  oxalate  in  heating  it  on  the  stove,  in  order 
that  it  might  not  spatter  into  the  viands  preparing  on 
the  stove  at  the  same  time ;  and  she  never  left  it  alone 
lest  Jinny  (our  black  cook)  should  taste  it  by  mistake. 
She  did  not,  she  said  darkly,  know  what  /  might  have 
done! 

Jinny  was  not  poisoned,  and  the  dog  and  cat  escaped, 
but  I  was  not  surprised  that  our  fowls  should,  like  Lady 
Clara  Vere  de  Vere,  "sicken  with  a  vague  disease,"  for 
I  had  seen  them  pecking  (with  the  fatal  inquisitiveness 
of  the  hen)  at  our  poisons  as  they  oozed  from  the  drain. 

It  was  later,  I  think,  that  we  discovered  a  fact  in 
zoology,  or  rather  entomology,  namely,  the  marvellous 
tenacity  of  life  in  the  common  house  fly.  Two  grains 
of  pyrogallic  acid  will  kill  a  dog ;  but  flies  simply  dote 
on  it,  either  as  a  beverage  or  as  a  medicinal  powder 
sprinkled  on  meat.  They  return  again  and  again  to  the 
feast  with  fresh  zest.  We  never  by  any  chance  could 
find  a  dead  fly  in  our  studio.  Mosquitoes,  gnats,  and 
such  small  banditti  did  occasionally  drown  in  the  devel- 
oper or  the  hypo  bath  ;  but  the  war}'  fly  sipped  and 
flew  away  rejoicing,  singing  as  he  flew,  and  we  were 
reduced  to  stick  up  a  sheet  of  the  inhuman  sticky  fly 
paper  to  help  our  screens. 

We  began  without  a  studio.  We  spent  days  in  focus- 
sing. That  is  what  the  little  book  advised.  So  we 


Showing  how  we  Meant  Well 


used  to  go  out  with  the  camera  and  spend  an  hour  at  a 
time,  staring  at  nothing  in  particular,  and  trying  to  see 
it  clearly,  like  a  novelist  of  the  most  advanced  realist 
school. 

I  was  away  when  the  first  picture  was  taken.  Jane 
and  the  planter  took  it  with  every  possible  care; 
Jane  holding  the  little  book,  the  planter  removing 
the  slide  slowly  and  cautiously,  and  taking  off  the 
cap,  while  Jane  counted.  The  picture  was  developed 
and  printed,  and  waiting  to  welcome  me. 

Madonna  displayed  it  with  maternal  pride.  "Jenny 
developed  and  printed  it  all  herself,''  she  said. 

It  was  a  large,  pale  house  on  a  little  shelf  of  fore- 
ground, against  a  small,  dark  sky.  I  couldn't  think 
that  it  was  pretty ;  but  it  plainly  was  a  house,  and  Jane 
had  done  it  all  herself.  I  was  impressed. 

It  was  printed  on  blue  paper,  very  blue  paper;  the 
high  lights  were  light  blue,  and  the  shadows  were  dark 
blue.  The  blue  paper  came  with  the  outfit. 

"  What  makes  the  sky  and  the  trees  the  same  color?  " 
said  Madonna,  eying  it  tenderly;  "is  that  the  paper? 
They  are  not,  in  the  photographs  you  buy." 

"It  is  because  it  is  a  thin  negative,"  said  Jane. 

"  What's  the  difference  between  a  thin  negative  and  a 
fat  one?"  said  I. 

"You  mean  a  dense  negative;  dense  and  thin  is  what 
they  call  them,"  corrected  Jane ;  "  a  thin  negative  is  one 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


that  has  been  exposed  too  long  when  the  picture  was 
taken.  The  book  says  that  even  professional  photog- 
raphers sometimes  mistake  the  proper  time  for  an 
exposure ;  but  that  in  a  little  while,  if  you  are  careful, 
you  can  guess  near  enough.  It  is  very  important  to 
expose  long  enough,  because,  if  you  don't,  the  details 
will  not  come  out  at  all ;  but  you  must  not  expose  too 
long,  because  then  the  details  will  come,  but  there  will 
be  no  contrast." 

"It  seems  to  be  difficult,"  I  ventured  feebly. 

We  thought  so  more  and  more,  as  the  days  rolled  by 
and  our  stock  of  plates  diminished.  There  are  so  many 
things  to  remember  in  taking  a  picture ;  sometimes  one 
forgets  to  remove  the  slide,  and  sometimes  the  cap,  and 
sometimes  we  took  pictures  without  the  stops,  although 
much  more  often  we  used  the  wrong  stops.  The  light 
has  a  sneaking  way  of  getting  into  the  plate-holder 
through  cracks,  or  into  the  bellows  of  the  camera;  while 
dust  is  as  insidious  as  sin.  Once  the  focusing-cloth 
slipped  over  the  lens  and  threw  a  pall  over  a  cotton 
picking.  After  we  secured  a  plate  on  which  was 
a  presumable  picture,  there  were  all  the  perils  of 
development.  Either  the  picture  came  up  in  a  flash, 
with  the  sky  and  the  foliage  of  the  same  tint  of  ash, 
or  it  was  all  black  and  white,  with  no  detail  in  the 
shadow,  or — a  frequent  tragedy — it  did  not  come  at  all ! 

Out  of  the  first  box  of  plates  we  secured  two  neo-a- 


Showing  how  we  Meant  Well 


tives  from  which  it  was  possible  to  print.  And  the 
second  box  did  not  encourage  us  much  more.  I  recall 
the  first  time  we  developed,  because  I  think  we  made 
about  as  many  mistakes  as  the  amateur  can  make,  even 
with  the  aid  of  a  little  book. 

We  used  a  corner  of  the  dining-room  for  a  dark 
room,  and  we  waited  for  a  moonless  night,  which  was  an 
inconvenience,  because,  having  but  one  plate-holder,  we 
could  take  no  more  pictures  until  the  first  taken  were 
safely  out  of  the  plate-holder.  We  had  not  then  dis- 
covered that  a  plate  with  a  picture  on  it  is  as  safe  as  a 
plate  without  one,  in  the  common  plate-box  of  com- 
merce. Later  we  took  dozens  of  pictures,  taking  our 
day's  work  out  of  the  slides  at  night  and  shifting  it  into 
a  plate-box,  covering  with  black  paper  and  wrapping 
the  box  up  in  black  cloth,  and  when  the  box  was  full 
pasting  it  securely.  But  at  this  period  we  had  no 
empty  plate-boxes ;  besides,  we  no  more  dared  to  take 
liberties  with  those  mysterious  pictures  than  to  taste 
our  drugs.  The  little  book  told  us  to  take  a  dark 
night,  and  we  took  it.  We  took  also  three  trays,  a  jug 
of  water,  and  an  empty  water-bucket  to  the  table. 
Then  Jane  suggested  that  we  have  a  second  bucket, 
full  of  water,  so  as  to  be  sure  to  have  enough  water. 

"The  book  says,  '  Wash  well,'  and  put  in  a  rack  to 
dry,"  said  Jane,  musingly;  "it  only  says  'rinse'  after 
developing,  'rinse  and  place  in  the  fixing  solution.' 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


What  do  you  suppose  'wash  well'  means?  To  wash  off 
two  or  three  times?" 

I  thought  it  did  mean  that ;  and  we  took  the  bucket 
of  water.  We  poured  a  narrow  stream  several  times 
over  the  plate,  and  we  told  each  other  that  whatever 
might  be  wrong  with  the  development  in  other  respects, 
at  least  we  were  washing  the  plates  thoroughly.  It 
chilled  us  to  read,  later,  that  half  an  hour's  washing 
with  running  water  ought  "to  eliminate  the  hypo." 

"Why,  it  must  take  gallons  on  gallons  of  water!" 
cried  Jane,  "and  running  water,  too;  it  will  not  do, 
they  all  say,  to  simply  let  the  negatives  soak." 

"  We  might  pump  it  at  the  kitchen  sink,"  suggested 
Madonna.  "  Jim  could  pump  for  you,  or,  if  you  don't 
want  to  risk  his  pumping,  I  would  as  lief  pump  as  not." 

It  ended  in  our  buying  a  negative-box  of  zinc — a  box 
large  enough  to  hold  a  dozen  negatives — and  pumping 
into  it  for  half  an  hour.  Then  our  minds  simultane- 
ously (so  simultaneously  that  I  suspect  we  must  have 
read  it  somewhere)  evolved  the  scheme  of  fitting  a 
faucet-cock  to  a  kerosene  barrel,  placing  the  negative- 
box  beneath,  turning  the  cock  partially,  and  letting  the 
water  of  the  whole  hogshead  drip  down  on  the  nega- 
tive-; ;uid  drain  off  into  space.  "So  much  has  been  said, 
and  on  the  whole  so  well  said,"  about  the  water  entering 
a  negative-box  from  below,  and  rising,  like  honest 
industry,  with  a  pause  for  remarks  at  every  stage,  until 
10 


Showing  how  we  Meant  Well 


it  flows  over  the  top,  that  we  were  impressed,  and 
bought  a  rubber  tube  and  fitted  it  on  to  the  cock  at  one 
end  and  to  a  little  funnel  inserted  into  the  box  at  the 
other.  The  box  is  Anthony's  Washing-box,  and  any 
one  who  uses  it  can  easily  make  the  same  arrangement 
It  looked  so  neat  and  comfortable,  and  was  so  in  accord 
with  the  principles  of  science,  that  it  pains  me  to  have 
to  mention  that  one  end  usually  slipped  off  while  we 
were  gone,  and  the  water  careered  aimlessly  about  the 
back  yard,  leaving  the  negatives  stranded  high  and 
dry.  Therefore,  reluctantly,  we  abandoned  the  scien- 
tific method,  and  let  our  water  drip  in  and  flow  out 
according  to  the  laws  of  gravitation,  which  seem  to 
work  pretty  steadily,  even  on  a  Southern  plantation. 

Our  custom  is  to  put  the  negatives  to  soak  for  an 
hour,  then  to  wash  them  off  well  and  go  over  the  sur- 
face with  a  little  piece  ("  a  dab  "  is  Jane's  definition  of 
size)  of  absorbent  cotton.  This  takes  away  a  disagree- 
able streaky  effect  that  may  disturb  an  otherwise  blame- 
less negative,  as  a  poor  digestion  will  the  disposition  of 
a  saint. 

Our  first  negatives  had  no  such  advantages,  you  mav 
be  sure;  they  were  washed  but  not  cleansed.  They 
ought  by  all  the  chances  to  have  come  to  the  worst  kind 
of  grief ;  but  they  were  as  obstinate  as  the  sinners  who 
live  to  ninety  in  spite  of  their  whiskey  and  tobacco ;  we 
printed  from  them  for  years ;  they  were  thin,  they  were 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

flat,  they  took  to  every  kind  of  dissipation  in  silver 
stains;  but  they  did  not  fade,  neither  did  they  spot,  in 
fine,  they  acted  as  if  they  were  perfectly  washed.  Their 
conduct  caused  one  of  us  disquieting  doubts.  Can  it  be, 
whispered  a  cynical  suspicion,  that  hypo  is  less  a  villain 
than  he  is  painted;  that  it  is  more  important  to  thor- 
oughly fix  your  image  than  it  is  to  wash  off  the  fixing? 
But  to  return  to  our  first  efforts.  We  took  the  plates 
into  our  improvised  studio  in  the  dining-room,  where  we 
artlessly  protected  the  matting  on  the  floor,  with  news- 
papers. Wo  lit  our  lantern.  It  was  about  the  size  of  a 
fist,  and  of  the  type  known  among  photographers  as  the 
Oculist's  Friend.  It  illumined  a  circle  on  the  plate 
rather  bigger  than  a  dollar.  The  other  parts  of  the 
table  were  in  Cimmerian  darkness.  The  position  of 
the  graduate — we  had  but  one — the  bottles  that  took  the 
place  of  graduates,  the  chemicals  and  the  trays,  all  must 
be  learned  by  heart  before  the  seance  began,  for  fear 
of  accidents — which  generally  occurred  anyhow  ! 

Jane  sat  in  the  operating  chair.  She  had  fortified 
herself  for  the  occasion  beforehand  by  reading  the  lit- 
tle book.  I  stood  in  waiting.  It  was  very  dark.  The 
plate-holder  was  in  Jane's  hand.  Plate-holders  are  of 
all  sorts  and  descriptions.  One  thing  which  the  amateur 
does  not  always  consider,  in  buying  plates,  he  is  like  to 
have  to  consider  so  soon  as  he  shall  unload  them,  namely 

the  contrivance  by  which  the  plate  is  held  in  place  with- 
12 


Showing  how  we  Meant  Well 

in  the  holder.  Our  first  plate-holders  had  a  kind  of 
screw  attachment  which,  the  advertisements  said,  "  held 
the  plates  immovable."  For  once  the  advertisements 
were  quite  truthful,  immovable  is  precisely  the  word  for 
the  grip  of  that  plate-holder!  We  wore  off  the  points  of 
our  nails,  and  one  of  us  wore  off  the  edge  of  her  temper; 
and  used  to  hit  the  too  faithful  custodian  a  smart  rap,  to 
loosen  things.  Grief  resulted,  for  if  there  is  anything 
equal  to  the  tenacity  with  which  that  holder  clutches  its 
plate  it  is  the  abruptness  with  which  it  lets  it  go,  and  the 
plate  pops  off  into  ruin !  That  is  why  I  broke  several 
negatives  that  might  have  proven  treasures,  before  we 
could  even  see  their  features  or  begin  to  love  them.  I 
dare  say  I  should  have  broken  many  more,  had  we  not 
bought  a  new  kind  of  plate-holder,  which  has  an  honest 
spring,  easily  persuaded  to  release  its  prisoner  ;  and  had 
we  not  discovered  that  the  wide  field  of  usefulness  per- 
taining to  the  hairpin  extends  to  photography. 

Jane  did  not  risk  my  impetuous  treatment ;  with  her 
own  fair  hands  she  extricated  the  plate.  "  Now,"  said 
she,  "  the  book  says  we  should  pour  out  the  developer 
into  the  graduate — 

"  That  stuff  that  looks  like  port  wine  is  the  developer, 
isn't  it? '' 

"  Yes,  pyrogallic  acid — pyro  they  call  it,  with  some- 
thing else  in  it.  The  book  says  to  flow  it  evenly  over 

the  plate." 

13 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


She  did  not  dust  the  plate,  because  the  little  book  said 
nothing  about  dusting.  Nor  did  we  blame  the  dust  for 
our  first  season's  plenteous  crop  of  pinholes ;  we  thought 
that  the  plates  were  poor.  Now,  we  dust  scrupulously, 
and  we  have  a  better  opinion  of  plates. 

Jane  laid  the  glimmering  white  plate  in  the  tray,  and 
poured  the  developer  over  it ;  that  was  what  the  book 
commanded,  and  we  obeyed  the  book,  although  we 
sometimes  wondered  what  made  the  singular  appearance 
of  a  puddle  having  dried  on  the  plate  ;  we  thought  most 
likely  the  emulsion  had  gone  wrong.  Having  finally 
covered  the  surface  of  the  plate— the  little  book  pre- 
scribed such  a  limited  quantity  of  fluid  that  this  was 
rather  a  feat — she  began  to  sway  the  dish  to  and  fro. 
This  motion  is  named  rocking  ;  and  a  number  of  advan- 
tages are  ascribed  to  it.  I  cannot  speak  of  them  with 
confidence,  because,  although  I  rock  conscientiously,  it 
has  happened  that,  developing  several  negatives  at  once, 
some  little  stranger  has  grown  up  without  rocking,  and 
turned  out  quite  as  well  as  the  others.  I  do  not  explain 
this  ;  it  simply  happened. 

But  you  may  be  sure  we  rocked  as  if  the  negatives 
were  a  first  baby,  this  time.  One  reason  for  having  a 
special  studio  is  the  necessity  of  rocking ;  in  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  moment  and  the  dim  light,  the  scientist  is 
likely  to  spatter.  Jane  did  not,  but  Jane  was  amazingly 
careful  and — amazingly  slow  !  Slowly,  carefully  she 
14 


Showing  how  we  Meant  Well 


rocked,  and  strained  her  eyes  to  see.  The  plate  was  a 
glimmering  rectangle. 

What  a  fascinating  thing  is  the  development  of  a 
negative!  Even  at  first,  when  you  are  at  the  mercy  of 
your  exposure,  and  if  your  plate  goes  wrong,  can  only 
helplessly  see  it  go. 

"Where's  the  picture?"  said  I;  but  I  knew  that  the 
picture  was  invisible,  and  that  the  plate  would  be  snow- 
white  for  a  while;  for  I, too,  had  read  the  little  book. 

"First,  the  high  lights  will  come  out,"  said  Jane; 
"the  sky  comes  first,  and  it  will  be  black,  for  it  is  ex- 
actly reversed ;  what  is  light  in  the  picture  is  black  in 
the  negative,  and  the  very  deepest  shadow  is  clear 
glass.  Now  look ! " 

Surely  enough,  a  pall  of  darkness  began  to  creep,  to 
deepen,  to  spread;  then  the  outlines  of  a  house,  of  trees, 
and  cattle  came  out  of  the  gloom  ;  but  the  darkness  was 
only  a  gray  darkness,  not  black ;  and  Jane  sighed. 

"  I  am  afraid  it's  over  exposed,"  said  she. 

"What  shall  we  do?" 

"  When  it  is  over  exposed  it  is  better  to  use  old 
developer." 

"  But  how  can  you  tell  whether  you  have  exposed 
your  negative  right?  " 

"  You  can't  tell  until  it  develops." 

"  But  can  you  stop  it  then  ?    It  seems  to  me  that  if 

you   have  put  it  in  the  strong  developer  it  will  have 
15 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


taken  such  a  grip  on  it  that  it  will   be  all  thin  before 
you  can  take  it  out." 

"The  book  says  it  should  be  immediately  put  into  a 
tray  of  water,  and  then  the  developer  poured  back,  and  * 
some  old  developer  that  will  not  work  so  fast  poured  in  ; 
but  I  can't,  because  we  have  not  any  more  trays." 

So  we  poured  off  the  developer,  and  put  on  the  devel- 
oper that  had  ushered  the  first  picture  into  the  world — 
and  nothing  happened  !  The  cows  and  the  house  and 
the  chickens  roosting  in  the  trees  appeared  more  and 
more  clearly,  but  the  sky  did  not  acquire  any  deepening 
of  the  desirable  black  tint,  and  clear  glass  appeared  in 
alarming  abundance. 

Presently  a  kind  of  veil  spread  over  the  picture. 
Jane  quieted  my  apprehensions;  she  said  that  it  was 
only  the  proper  way  for  it  to  look  when  completed,  and 
she  washed  it  off  calmlv  and  put  it  into  a  bath  of  alum. 
She  said  that  would  harden  the  film.  Undoubtedly 
alum  does  harden  films,  but  it  has  not  escaped  the 
breath  of  scandal  which  loves  to  blow  on  every  photo- 
graphic benefactor;  it  is  accused  of  doing  a  variety  of 
evil  things  which  I  shall  not  enumerate,  because  it  never 
did  any  harm  to  us.  It  is  a  nuisance,  but  so,  frequently, 
is  a  baby  and  many  other,  in  the  main,  valuable  things! 
The  other  picture  was  a  cypress  brake.  I  declare  I  can- 
not understand  to  this  day  why  that  picture  should  be 
so  good  as  it  was.  Except  for  thinness  (and  how  many 
16 


Showing  how  we  Meant  Well 


lovely  and  amiable  and  gifted  people  are  thin  ! — I  am 
sure  I  often  wish  I  were  thin  myself!)  it  was  a  beautiful 
negative;  yet  we  did  not  know  a  rudiment  of  the  art. 
I  can  only  account  for  our  undeserved  success  by  the 
same  theory  that  consoles  the  scientific  whist-player 
when  the  bumblepuppyist  marks  up  the  rubber;  namely, 
that  the  duffers  sometimes,  to  use  the  language  of  the 
celebrated  Mr.  Foster,  "  accidentally  hit  on  plays  equal 
to  the  best  inspirations  of  genius." 

I  am  quite  sure  we  didn't  wash  out  the  developer 
thoroughly  before  we  put  it  into  the  hypo  bath ;  I  am 
equally  convinced  we  did  not  have  the  least  notion 
when  to  take  it  out  of  the  hypo — and  a  plain  saturated 
solution  of  hypo  is  not  an  ideal  fixing  bath — while  I 
have  already  described  our  perfunctory  washing,  after- 
wards. Happily  we  did  not  realize  the  pitfalls  among 
which  we  were  walking.  If  we  had,  we  might  not  have 
stood  our  two  negatives  up  on  the  piano  to  dry,  with 
such  a  light  heart,  and  gone  to  bed  so  cheerfully. 


17 


CHAPTER  IT 

THE   COMPOSITION   OF    A    PICTURE;    OR,    OUR    GROUND- 
GLASS   DOUBLE   AND   HOW   IT   UNDID    US 

"WE  are  beginning  to  discover  that  there  is  more  in 
the  composing  of  a  picture  than  we  had  supposed.  It 
was  our  idea  that  tlie  sun  repeated  the  impression  of  the 
eye ;  that  a  pretty  scene  would  look  pretty  on  the  glass, 
and  an  ugly  one  would  look  ugly.  Nothing,  it  appears, 
can  be  farther  from  the  truth.  Everything  looks  pretty 
on  the  glass.  To-day,  Jane  took  a  photograph  of  the 
river  at  the  bend. 

"  It  is  as  sweet  a  little  pastoral  as  one  could  ask, 
nothing  grand,  of  course,  nothing  beautiful  in  any  large 
sense,  but  given  a  peaceful  cow  grazing  on  the  bank,  a 
few  white  dots  of  sheep  under  the  shade,  and  what 
could  be  prettier,  daintier,  than  the  scene? 

''But  Jane's  picture — it  is  like  a  map  !  The  cows  and 
sheep  are  pinheads,  the  river  a  blur  of  white.  She  said 
that  the  objects  in  the  picture  had  looked  small  on  the 
ground-glass,  but  she  somehow  hoped  that  they  would 
look  larger  in  a  negative.  Well,  they  didn't;  nothing 

looked  large  except  one  corner  of  a  fence  which  had 
18 


The  Composition  of  a  Picture 


crept  unobserved  into  the  landscape,  and  reared  a 
gigantic  shadow  on  the  tin}7  plain. 

"  We  have  tried  a  number  of  landscapes ;  and  either 
something  is  the  matter  with  our  camera  or  with  us ; 
for  they  are  all  too  prosaic  for  words." 

This  is  an  extract  from  a  diary  of  gloom  that  we  kept 
the  first  season.  The  early  stage  in  the  photographic 
career  is  wonder  and  delight  at  the  ability  to  make  any 
semblance  of  a  picture  at  all.  A  camera  seems  such  a 
witch's  toy  that  to  be  able  to  get  any  obedience  what- 
ever from  it  amazes  the  beginner. 

But  this  phase  passes.  Directly,  he  catches  fire 
from  the  books  which  a  student  buys  as  soon  as  he 
begins  to  work.  The  jade  Ambition,  that  harries  every 
artist,  and  every  artisan  with  the  artist's  soul,  does  not 
disdain  our  poor  dabbler  in  silver  and  gelatine  and  the 
sun  ;  she  cleverly  lures  him  on  her  hook.  He  begins  to 
talk  of  "pictorial  photographs,"  of  composing,  of  tech- 
nique, of  "pluck"  and  "brilliancy,"  and  "clearness  in 
the  shadows,"  and  "luminous  perspective"  and  "har- 
monious half-tones,"  and  I  know  not  what  of  phrases 
out  of  the  books. 

Then  the  rocks  rise  out  of  the  river  and  stab  his 
little  pinnace  of  hope  !  This  affects  me,  as  being  a  more 
unexpected  sentence  than  the  assertion  that  "  there  is  no 
royal  road  to  photography ; "  but  it  comes  to  the  same 

thing. 

19 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

Our  theosophist  friends  do  not,  I  think,  grant  the 
privilege  of  preexistence  to  inanimate  objects;  bat  we 
have  been  tempted  to  believe  that  our  first  camera  once 
was  one  of  those  children  known  as  "contrary."  The 
innocent-looking  mahogany  thing  seems  to  take  delight 
in  doing  just  what  we  have  asked  it  not  to  do.  Its  first 
mean  trick  was  to  snub  the  middle  distance.  The 
middle  distance  is  of  a  modest  turn,  and  tends  to  efface 
itself  even  when  encouraged;  our  camera  pushed  it 
quite  out  of  sight.  The  foreground  flaunted  itself  in 
front  of  a  thin  strip  of  perspective  that  looked  to  be 
miles  away  ;  above  was  a  wealth  of  vacant  air — for  you 
could  not  call  a  uniform  gray  tint  a  sky !  The  middle 
distance  seemed  to  be  as  cotton  planters  say  they  are — 
in  a  hole!  Nor  could  we  drag  it  out.  If  we  lowered 
the  focus,  the  foreground  only  assumed  more  alarming 
proportions,  a  great  expanse  of  shadowless  white  ground 
speckled  with  grass  taking  up  three-fourths  of  the 
picture,  and  growing  and  growing  like  an  enraged  genius 
of  the  "  Arabian  Nights.''  If  we  lifted  the  lens  we  got 
unmitigated  sky. 

One  day,  the  lightning  flash  of  inspiration  visited 
us — one  of  us;  modesty  will  not  permit  me  to  mention 
which  one — we  determined  to  turn  the  foreground  into 
middle  distance ;  out  of  the  nettle,  danger,  we  plucked 
the  flower,  safety.  Two  things  are  necessary,  oh,  gentle 

amateur  whom  I  fondly  prefigure  to  myself  following 
20 


The  Composition  of  a  Picture 


these  adventures,  two  things  are  necessary  to  capture  a 
middle  distance.  One  thing  is  to  abandon  panoramas. 
In  those  wide  visions  all  the  jewelled  hues  of  sky  and 
cloud  and  field  and  iridescent  water,  He  like  fun.  The 
ground-glass  picture  is  no  more  like  the  black  and  white 
photograph  than  the  fables  of  the  steerage  agents  about 
America  are  like  our  dear  country.  Both  are  very 
good  things  in  their  way,  but  they  have  not  the  same 
way.  You  are  obliged  to  translate  the  witchery  of 
color  into  plain  light  and  shade;  and  the  translation, 
like  other  translations,  loses  the  vivid  charm  of  the 
original.  You  fancied  yourself  looking  at  a  beautiful 
landscape — behold,  in  the  print,  a  flat,  tame,  unrelieved 
composition ;  no  contrast,  no  life,  no  light  and  shade,  no 
interest.  Of  course  the  translation  applies  to  little 
bits  as  well  as  to  larger  views,  but  the  bits  are  infi- 
nitely easier  to  translate.  Light  and  shade  are  more 
intelligible.  And  the  ground-glass  is  less  deceitful 
about  the  picturesqueness  of  the  scene.  A  lad  fishing 
by  the  river's  edge  under  a  clump  of  trees,  a  wagon 
resting  for  a  nooning  by  the  stream,  a  figure  walking 
down  a  country  road,  a  vista  of  woodland  or  a  glimpse 
of  trees  on  a  river  road — these  look  much  the  same  in 
colors  or  in  black  and  white,  they  retain  the  same  kind 
of  attraction.  The  middle  distance  is  more  manageable 
in  these  slight  motives,  and  less  missed  if  it  eludes 
you. 

21 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


A  plan  we  tried  with  happy  result,  is  to  focus  on  the 
interesting  object  after  you  have  placed  it  in  the  centre 
of  your  planes ;  that  catches  the  middle  distance,  every 
time.  See  for  yourself,  in  the  picture  of  the  boys  rest- 
ing in  the  shade.  The  eye  must  go  find  the  middle 
distance;  it  has  no  option,  the  wagon  is  squarely  on  the 
edge  of  it 

The  other  necessary  thing  is  to  take  one's  picture 
either  on  level  ground,  or,  what  is  better,  slightly  up 
hill.  The  depth  of  perspective  is  vastly  helped  by  a 
little  lift  to  the  angle  of  view.  One  reason  for  our 
early  pictures  appearing  to  be  rows  of  trees  or  houses 
growing  out  of  a  shelf,  was  that  we  made  no  account  of 
inequalities  in  the  ground;  we  were  as  likely  to  take  a 
view  down  hill  as  up. 

All  this  brings  me  to  another  trick  of  the  ground- 
glass.  It  concerns  what  the  artist  calls  values.  If  it 
were  not  for  a  tender  conscience  and  some  knowledge  of 
the  cost  of  reproducing  photographs,  I  could  fill  pages 
with  illustrations  of  values  out  of  gear,  as  it  were; 
fences  larger  than  houses,  and  lop-sided  scenery.  But 
what  amateur's  photograph  album  has  missed  such 
presences  ? 

For  a  single  example,  observe,  in  the  picture  I  sadly 
submit,  the  size  of  those  black  children  in  the  fore- 
ground; they  are  Gullivers  and  the  women  Lillipu- 
tians! It  is  impossible  to  imagine  them  ever  getting 


The  Composition  of  a  Picture 


through  that  cabin  door.  They  did  not  look  so  large  on 
the  ground-glass ;  I  am  sure  they  did  not  The  wide- 
angle  lenses  always  make  distant  objects  smaller  than 
the  eye  would  make  them;  they  always  distort;  they 
pay  for  their  abnormal  width  of  angle  by  distorting; 
it  is  the  wages  of  sin. 

The  only  certain  cure  for  the  fault  is  a  good  deal  like 
the  man's  sure  cure  for  a  mad  dog — he  killed  the  dog ! 
We  cut  off  the  distorted  parts  of  the  picture — witness 
the  vignette  of  the  washing  party.  A  lens  that  covers 
a  wider  field  than  your  ground-glass  will  do  the  same 
thing  permanently  and  for  all  your  pictures,  but  it  is 
more  expensive. 

The  question  of  values,  of  the  harmonious  arrange- 
ment of  a  picture,  is  infinitely  expansive.  One  never 
solves  it ;  yet  its  fascinating  puzzles  reward  every  suc- 
cess with  ne"w  ideals  and  new  difficulties.  It  is  not 
only  a  question  of  proportion,  it  is  a  question  of  inter- 
est as  well.  It  is  a  mistake  to  scatter  the  interest,  just 
as  it  is  a  mistake  to  sprinkle  high  lights  about  too 
liberally. 

Figures,  unless  they  have  some  plain  relation  to  a 
landscape,  only  muddle  the  story  that  every  picture 
needs  to  tell.  It  need  not  be  a  human  story  ;  but  some 
phase  of  the  eternal  drama  every  landscape  speaks 
whether  we  can  interpret  or  no.  There  is  something 

deeper   in   the   barest  and   humblest   nature   than  the 
23 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

poets  themselves  can  reach.  Wordsworth  felt  its  thrill 
when  he  mused  over  the  yellow  cowslip,  and  Burns 
when  he  caressed  the  daisy.  Why  shall  not  a  photog- 
rapher be  enough  of  an  artist  to  respect  what  has  awed 
his  betters  ? 

Where  a  figure  is  part' of  a  story,  that,  as  our  German 
friends  say,  is  "different  again."  A  lonely  old  negro  in 
a  cotton-field,  picking  the  last  picking  from  the  ragged 
stalks,  against  a  background  of  his  wretched  cabin  and 
the  setting  sun,  makes  a  picture  that  Eidgway  Knight 
would  not  disdain. 

We  have  a  group  of  negro  boys  shooting  craps  near 
the  mill;  the  rags  and  the  jollity  of  those  boys  were 
good  enough  for  Brown.  It  does  not  harm  the  picture 
that  there  is  a  dismal  cypress  slash  beyond,  for  the  mill, 
and  the  crowd  of  wagons  waiting  for  the  Saturday 
grist,  explain  the  boys'  right  to  be  there.  An  unfort- 
unate accident  to  the  nose  of  the  best  boy  has  made  it 
impossible,  in  justice  to  Jane,  to  display  him.  Some- 
how, in  retouching  the  faces,  I  did  something  queer  to 
that  child's  nose. 

In  an  intermittent  fashion,  we  have  made  studies  of 
the  life  of  the  negro  and  the  "renter."  I  do  not  know 
why  a  persistent,  conscientious  effort  at  a  pictorial 
representation  of  any  people,  primitive  enough  to  wear 
working  clothes  of  their  own,  should  not  repay  the 
photographer. 

24 


The  Composition  of  a  Picture 

But  the  obstacles  are  many.  You  have  not  only  to 
ran  down  your  subject,  you  have  to  run  down  an  appro- 
priate mise  en  scene,  and — worst  job  of  all ! — appropriate 
lighting.  I  have  been  hunting  that  aged  negro  in  the 
cotton  field  with  the  sunset,  for  two  years:  and  I  have 
not  captured  him  yet.  I  have  found  the  cabin  and  the 
field  and  the  negro,  and  the  sunset  comes  to  see  us 
every  fair  day.  But  I  have  not  been  able  to  collect 
them  simultaneously. 

One  persistent  trial  is  the  previous  education  of  the 
people.  If  they  had  never  seen  a  camera  they  might  be 
willing  to  stand  where  we  asked  them,  but  they  have  all 
had  tintypes  taken,  and  they  know  that  they  must  face 
the  camera  squarely,  and  hold  every  muscle  rigid  and 
look  solemn  if  they  want  the  picture  "  to  favor  them." 
There  they  are  in  the  wash-day  picture ;  observe  how 
every  woman  has  assumed  her  best  notion  of  a  good 
photographic  attitude,  and  how  not  one  of  them  seems 
to  concern  herself  further  with  the  washing.  Contrast 
their  absorption  in  the  camera  with  the  careless  ease  of 
those  black  citizens  that  we  caught  with  the  shutter,  in 
that  picture  of  the  boat  landing.  In  the  picture  of  an 
Arkansas  renter's  cabin,  in  this  chapter,  there  is  the 
same  determined  sitting  for  a  picture.  We  tried  to 
arrange  those  people  in  the  gallery,  but  it  was  hopeless ; 
all  we  could  do  was  to  focus  in  such  a  way  that  they 
should  be  small.  Animals  are  very  valuable  in  a  land- 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


scape ;  and  cows  and  sheep  have  not  the  unmanageable 
qualities  of  human  subjects.  There  is,  also,  the  artist's 
own  stock  device  of  suggestion.  Jane  used  it  in  taking 
that  cottage  which  you  see.  She  did  not  want  to  introduce 
a  figure,  but  she  did  want  to  show  that  it  was  more  than  a 
house,  it  was  a  home  that  she  pictured.  Do  you  notice 
the  little  baby-carriage  down  the  walk,  quite  empty? — 
that  was  Jane's  flight  of  fancy. 

It  is  one  of  the  camera's  technical,  rather  than  artistic, 
foibles,  that  it  should  be  such  a  sad  socialist.  It  makes 
out  near  objects  to  be  far  larger  than  their  right  of 
bulk,  and  dwarfs  all  the  distant  objects,  as  if  the  sole 
aim  of  a  perspective  were  to  obey  Uriah  Heep  and  "  be 
'umble." 

The  truth,  we  take  it,  is  that  Jack-of -all-trades  lenses 
are  a  good  deal  like  Jack-of-all-trades  on  a  plantation ; 
they  "make  out,"  but  they  don't  make  a  first-rate  job. 

The  photographer  really  needs  a  long-focus  lens  for 
landscapes,  and  a  wide-angle  lens  for  interiors.  But 
where  one  finds  it  as  difficult  as  we  have  found  it  to 
obtain  a  long-focus  lens,  he  may  be  glad  to  learn  the 
plan  of  an  English  photographer,  told  to  us  by  an 
eloquent  clergyman  who  makes  good  pictures.  The 
plan  is  simply  to  remove  one  of  the  lenses.  The  single 
lens  left  will  make  your  distance  about  a  quarter  larger, 
and  so  far  as  we  can  discover  you  will  have  no  loss  of 
clearness  of  definition. 

26 


The  Composition  of  a  Picture 

But  there  are  compensations  even  for  the  distortions 
of  the  camera.  Like  conflicting  testimony,  its  lies  bal- 
ance. If  it  belittles  the  distant  river,  it  transfigures  the 
ditch  (of  the  foreground)  into  a  river.  Do  not  those 
boj's,  in  the  scene  before  mentioned,  appear  to  be  rest- 
ing by  a  river  bank  ?  They  really  are  beside  a  "slash  " 
that  runs  dry  in  summer,  and  could  be  spanned  at  high 
water  by  a  fallen  tree.  Little  by  little  we  left  our  seats 
of  pride  and  our  wide  landscapes,  and  respected  the  riv- 
ulets and  the  mud  puddles.  Did  you  ever  attempt  a 
country  road?  Just  a  single  figure  walking  into  a 
forest  vista,  that  is  all — what  can  be  simpler?  So  we 
thought  it  until  we  tried  to  put  that  simple  scene  on 
our  negatives.  Then  the  road  unfolded  itself  in  the 
most  surprising  manner,  equal  to  nothing  except  the 
celebrated  smile  of  the  Cheshire  cat;  it* expanded  and 
expanded  in  front;  it  contracted  and  contracted  be- 
hind; it  was  not  a  vista,  it  was  a  triangle,  and  the 
obtusest  angled  triangle  in  the  world,  at  that ! 

I  had  pictured  that  country  road — a  beautiful  winding 
road  it  was  to  be — with  a  symmetrical  row  of  trees, 
decreasing  slowly  from  the  first  to  the  last,  and  .each 
side  of  the  avenue  as  trim  as  the  picture  of  a  fond 
mother's  row  of  boys,  with  apparently  not  more  than 
two  years  between  ages.  That  is  the  way  trees  look  in 
pictures,  but  in  nature  trees  cannot  be  grouped  ;  the  near 

trees   were    giants,    from    which    they   ran   down,    not 

27 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


gradually  and  gracefully,  but  in  jumps  and  falls,  and 
jumps  again.  However,  thanks  to  the  credulity  of  the 
camera,  we  outwitted  it.  We  selected  a  part  of  the 
road  that  winds  up  a  slight  bill,  and  we  picked  out 
some  tender  saplings,  which  we  passed  off  on  the  lens  for 
gum-trees  in  their  prime;  while  we  worked  our  way 
up  to  some  woodland  princes  in  the  distance,  too  big 
to  be  entirely  slighted.  The  result  was  a  fairly  good 
picture. 

I  have  not  touched  on  the  voluminous  subject  of 
lighting;  I  touch  it  now  with  a  cautious  hand.  We 
have  suffered  many  things  from  poor  lighting ;  and  we 
shall,  in  all  probability,  suffer  many  more  in  future; 
and  the  reason  of  our  afflictions  is  the  reason  of  my 
caution — we  do  not  know  how  to  light  a  picture.  The 
general  impression  of  the  photographer  in  the  dawn  of 
life  is  that  he  ought  to  have  the  sun  at  his  back.  That 
was  our  belief.  The  little  book  encouraged  us  in  it. 
And  even  we  could  see — after  a  single  trial — that  the  sun 
in  front  will  make  a  neat  round  white  spot  on  the  plate. 
But  the  sun  on  the  picture,  from  behind,  makes  very 
unimpressive  shadows.  So  we  have  preferred  side  light- 
ing; occasionally,  we  have  dared  the  sun,  by  shading 
the  lens.  For  a  long  while  we  could  not  understand 
why  we  had  such  monotony  of  lighting ;  then  we  read 
the  explanation  of  it  in  a  book.  We  have  plenty  of 
books,  for  it  has  been  our  custom  to  buy  all  the  photo- 


The  Composition  of  a  Picture 


graphic  books  that  we  have  seen  in  the  advertisements  ; 
and  to  spend  time  that  we  might  have  employed  in  read- 
ing the  English  classics  or  the  Sunday  editions  of  the 
newspapers,  in  poring  over  them,  and  admiring  to  see 
how  much  higher  fortunes  attended  other  amateurs. 

The  book  told  us  that  a  brilliant  negative  must  have 
brilliant  lighting;  high  light,  dense  shadow,  masses  of 
light  and  masses  of  shadow.  At  this  period  we  had  an 
ideal  photograph.  We  purchased  it  in  St.  Augustine, 
Florida.  It  represented  a  scene  on  the  Ocklawaha  River. 
The  shadows  were  dark  as  purple-toned  paper  will  go, 
the  river  glittered  from  shadow  to  white  light,  and  the 
sky  was  white  as  the  driven  snow.  We  struggled  after 
a  white  sky  as  earnestly  at  that  season  as  we  are  now 
struggling  for  tints  and  cloud  effects.  Our  negatives 
were  so  thin  that  high  lights  were  craved  by  us  with  a 
yearning  longing.  We  took  the  book's  advice  and  lit 
our  little  world  from  the  side.  But  though  we  had  side 
lighting,  those  desirable  masses  of  light  and  those  rich, 
long  shadows  did  not  appear.  Sometimes  a  picture  that 
the  ground-glass  showed  us  flooded  with  radiance, 
appeared  in  print  speckled  in  white  patches  like  a 
barred  Plymouth  Rock  hen.  Trees  dappled  with  light 
may  look  beautiful  in  a  forest,  in  a  photograph  they 
merely  look  streaked. 

"  We  photograph  at  the  wrong  hour  of  the  day,"  pro- 
nounced Jane,  solemnly  ;  "  what  is  the  right  one  ?  " 
29 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

Long  since,  Jane  herself  had  discarded  the  little  book; 
I  don't  know  which  one  of  us  threw  it  into  the  fire, 
though  I  know  which  one  was  the  more  likely  to  do 
such  a  thing.  It  matters  not,  it  was  gone,  and  Jane  now 
pinned  her  faith  to  "The  Photographic  Times  Annual  " 
and  that  distinguished  amateur,  General  Joseph  Brown. 
I  can't  say  whether  it  was  General  Joseph  or  a  lesser 
idol  that  explained  shadows  to  us;  whoever  he  be,  he 
will  please  accept  this  intimation.  We  are  still  grateful 
to  him  for  his  clear  definition  of  shadow.  The  sun, 
high  at  noonday,  does  not  cut  any  figure  as  a  silhouette 
painter  ;  the  long  shadows  come  early  in  the  morning  or 
late  in  the  afternoon.  Just  before  sunset  one  can  some- 
times catch  an  effect  as  if  the  objects  were  outlined  in 
light — as  in  these  sheep.  I  am  told  an  equally  fascinat- 
ing but  different  charm  pertains  to  the  sunrise  light ; 
we  shall  preserve  that  early  stroll  and  those  golden 
exhalations  of  the  dawn  for  our  old  age,  when  we  may 
enjoy  them  more;  at  present  we  do  not  rise  at  six  for  any- 
thing less  than  a  railway  despot  or  sickness  in  the  house. 

There  is  a  fugitive,  subtle  quality  about  this  whole 
business  of  lighting.  It  reminds  me  of  my  first  parasol. 
I  was  so  little  that  I  did  not  know  where  the  sun  was, 
and  I  kept  shifting  my  new  splendor  from  side  to  side 
as  I  saw  people  coming  or  going,  in  as  many  minds 
about  my  parasol  as  poor  Lemuel  Barker  was  in  about 
his  fork,  when  he  first  dined  in  Boston. 
30 


The  Composition  of  a  Picture 


The  shadows  in  a  picture  are  so  altered  and  disguised 
by  color  that,  although  we  make  an  opera-glass  of  our 
hands,  and  squint  up  our  eyes  in  the  best  approach  we 
know  to  the  artistic  formula,  we  never  quite  determine 
what  to  expect  of  the  lighting  until  we  see  it  on  the 
negative. 

As  for  half-tones,  a  picture  is  a  crude,  harsh  thing 
without  nature's  exquisite  gamut  of  gradations  in  tint, 
the  like  of  which  we  can  only  image  in  black  and  white 
by  half-tones ;  yet  they  seem  as  hard  to  obtain  as  the 
truth  about  the  negro.  And  the  deceitful  ground-glass 
is  in  its  element,  suppressing  neutral  grays  by  every  lie 
in  color  that  there  is.  Foliage  has  to  be  carefully 
studied,  and  is  likely  to  turn  out  a  muddy  black  after 
all  your  pains.  However,  foliage  is  as  much  a  matter 
of  development  as  of  lighting.  And  here  comes  in  one 
of  the  mournfulest  features  of  photography.  You  need 
to  know  the  whole  trade  at  once.  Vain  is  the  truest  and 
most  ingenious  artist's  eye  if  you  jar  your  tripod,  or 
leave  your  plate-holder  on  the  ground,  or  forget  to 
remove  your  slide,  or  drop  your  cap  and  it  rolls  awav, 
or  neglect  to  turn  your  slide  after  the  picture  is  taken, 
and  thus  take  two  pictures  on  one  plate,  or  have  the 
wee-est  crevice  for  light  to  slip  into  your  bellows,  or  do 
one  of  twenty  possible  (and  we  should  say  probable) 
wrong  things  ;  and  after  you  have  held  your  breath  and 

taken  your  picture  correctly,  ten  to  one  you  will  muddle 
31 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

it  somehow  in  the  development,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
multitudinous  perils  of  printing! 

Indeed,  I  have  often  thought  that  the  devil  would 
have  had  a  fairer  chance  in  that  memorable  tussle  of  his 
with  Job,  had  he  only  known  about  photography.  It 
was  invented  long  after  his  day,  the  better  for  the  testy 
patriarch  ;  for,  could  Satan  have  sent  the  old  gentleman 
out  with  a  model  five-by-eight  camera,  tugging  eight  or 
ten  plate-holders,  on  a  warm  Judean  day,  trying  to  get 
an  instantaneous  view  of  one  of  the  comforters  galloping 
away  on  his  Arab  steed,  with  a  drop  shutter  that  hitched 
in  the  drop;  or  could  he  have  inveigled  him  into 
attempting  portraits  of  the  children  that  should  satisfy 
his  wife,  boils  would  have  seemed  a  mild  discipline  in 
comparison.  At  least,  that  is  the  opinion  of  a  good 
friend  of  ours.  He  says,  "  I  have  had  boils,  and  I  have 
had  a  camera  ;  and  boils  are  not  in  it." 


CHAPTER  III 

A   MAKESHIFT   STUDIO 

WE  had  not  been  photographing  two  weeks  before 
we  outgrew  the  corner  of  the  dining-room  and  set  up  a 
studio.  It  is  a  small  room  off  the  kitchen,  about  twelve 
by  fourteen  in  dimensions.  Up  North  we  have  had  a 
regular  dark  room  and  printing  room  constructed  for  us, 
with  running  water,  gas,  and  the  like  conveniences ;  but 
our  Southern  studio  is  much  more  inexpensive,  and  I 
don't  know  but  that  we  make  quite  as  good  pictures 
in  it. 

You  remember  the  poet : 

"What  and  how  great  the  virtue  and  the  art, 
To  live  on  little  with  a  thankful  heart." 

We  have  no  running  water  nearer  than  the  kitchen 
pump.  Instead,  on  the  common  kitchen  table  which 
we  have  bought  for  a  developing  table  there  is  a 
dripping  pan,  in  the  northwest  end  of  which  a  dipper 
handle  is  soldered,  making  an  admirable  funnel.  The 
funnel  passes  through  a  hole  in  the  table.  A  tub 
stands  on  the  floor  under  the  funnel,  which  catches  con- 
siderable of  the  waste  water — we  should  not  be  amateur 
3  33 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

photographers  if  it  caught  all.  Next  to  the  pan  is  a 
box  surmounted  by  a  common  water  bucket  with  a 
wooden  cock ;  so  that  we  can  turn  the  water  on  to  our 
negatives  at  any  rate  we  desire,  from  a  trickle  to  full 
speed.  The  water  runs  off  the  negative  into  the  pan 
and  through  the  funnel.  The  whole  outfit  cannot  have 
cost  more  than  three  dollars,  including  the  table.  There 
is  a  shelf  above  the  table,  and  a  kind  of  ell  to  the  table 
on  the  right,  built  by  one  of  the  plantation  carpenters. 
On  the  opposite  side  of  the  room  a  printing  table  runs 
the  whole  length  of  the  wall,  with  shelves  above  and 
below.  When  we  need  shelves,  and  there  is  no  carpen- 
ter available,  any  small  box  will  make  two  shelves.  On 
one  pair  of  box  shelves  is  our  library  ;  a  large  packing 
box  holds  the  negative  boxes  and  the  printing  frames, 
while  a  great  chest  has  our  paper,  and  the  blankets  that 
serve  us  for  backgrounds  when  we  take  portraits.  The 
studio  is  lighted  frankly  by  two  large  panes  of  yellow 
glass,  and  on  the  sly  by  white  light  which  sifts  through 
unperceived  cracks  about  the  door  or  the  ceiling.  The 
room  was  originally  whitewashed,  which  is  a  great  help 
to  the  light,  ^ 

It  is  not  the  easy  matter  that  it  may  seem  to  make 
a  dark  room.  I  stop  up  the  orange  window  with  a 
shutter  that  we  have  had  built  for  the  purpose.  I  tack 
thick  felt  paper  over  every  crack  that  I  can  discover,  I 
hang  black  cloth  over  the  doors.  I  hope  that  it  is 
34 


A  Makeshift  Studio 


because  I  have  been  in  the  room  so  long  that  I  seem  to 
see  so  much,  in  spite  of  this  toil.  I  appeal  to  Jane. 

"  White  light  just  streaming  in,  isn't  it?  "  says  Jane, 
cheerfully. 

I  can  see  the  odious  white  walls  glimmering,  but  it  is 
one  thing  to  be  aware  of  your  failures,  quite  another  to 
have  them  flaunted  in  your  face  by  one  from  whom 
you  expected  sympathy ;  I  answer  with  dignity  that  I 
can't  see  my  hand  before  my  face. 

"No  more  can  I,"  says  Jane,  still  cheerful;  "but  I 
can  almost  read  the  labels  on  those  bottles  opposite." 

To  which  I  reply  that  I  am  going  to  develop  in  that 
room,  by  that  light,  and  see  what  will  come  of  it. 
Nothing  comes  of  it;  I  do  not  know  why  the  negatives 
are  not  fogged,  as  Jane  expects  (in  my  soul,  I  rather 
expect  it,  too !),  but  they  are  not ;  and  Jane  enters  in  the 
book  of  our  experience:  "  Plates  developed  under  cover 
can  bear  a  remarkable  amount  of  white  light." 

Above  our  developing  table  hangs  a  noble  lantern, 
which  has  red  and  yellow  and  white  light.  It  is  from 
Mr.  Carbutt,  and  I  think  it  cost  six  dollars,  and  it  is 
cheap  at  the  price.  And  although  we  do  not  develop 
with  it,  regularly,  now,  we  often  find  it  very  useful. 

We  have  a  theory  in  regard  to  lanterns.  For  a  long 
time  we  used  to  wonder  whether  our  recurring  misad- 
ventures with  lanterns  were  due  to  the  lanterns  or  to 
our  own  stupidity,  which  we  both  admit  was  versatile 
35 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

and  persistent.  Our  first  lantern  was  the  size  of  one's 
fist,  and  was  called  The  Gem  or  The  Jewel  or  some  such 
pretty  name.  It  disturbed  the  sacred  blackness  with 
hardly  a  gleam  of  red  light,  and  a  very  efficient  smell  of 
oil.  It  does  not  harm  a  negative,  not  in  the  least.  The 
negative  takes  its  own  course  for  weal  or  woe,  not 
affected  by  anything,  because  the  operator  sees  nothing 
of  it  until  it  cornes  out  of  the  fixing  bath  with  its  char- 
acter formed  for  life.  We  can  putter  over  it,  intensify 
or  reduce,  help  or  hinder  a  little,  but  as  a  whole  the  die 
is  cast.  Occasionally,  with  this  lantern,  we  poured  the 
developer  on  unevenly  and  made  rings  on  the  plate,  or 
we  made  a  slight  mistake  in  our  tray  positions,  and  the 
rapidly  thinning  negative,  instead  of  visiting  the  density 
solution,  was  popped  into  the  deadly  alkali  waiting  for 
the  instantieties.  It  will  be  seen  that  it  was  safer  for 
the  negative  for  us  to  stand  aside  and  let  nature  take 
her  course,  unhampered.  When  we  got  anything  that 
would  print  we  were  thankful;  when  we  didn't,  we 
were  not  surprised.  It  was  a  splendid  lantern  for  a 
philosopher,  it  kept  him  always  in  training! 

Our  next  venture  was  a  lantern  pluming  itself  on  its 
innocence.  It  was  an  ascetic  lantern;  it  did  not  pre- 
tend to  give  much  light ;  but  it  declared  light  to  be  a 
mortal  sin  in  a  dark  room,  anyhow  ;  the  less  light  on  the 
plate  the  better ;  the  desideratum  was  to  have  no  danger- 
ous and  disagreeable  oil  about.  The  lantern  in  ques- 


A  Makeshift  Studio 


tion  had  no  oil ;  it  burned  a  candle.  We  used  it  twice. 
Any  reader  of  this  book  who  desires  a  perfectly  safe 
dark  lantern  that  will  never  explode  can  have  the 
before-mentioned  treasure  by  applying  to  us,  and  send- 
ing a  suitable  box  for  transportation.  Express  to  be 
collected  at  the  other  end. 

Our  third  lantern  was  bought  because  we  read  in 
Scribner's  Magazine  about  some  one  who  spared  his 
skies  and  painted  in  the  reluctant  foliage  with  strong 
developer.  He  was  accustomed  to  linger  long  over  his 
negatives,  and  they  were  of  surpassing  beauty. 

"  He  couldn't  see  to  paint  by  our  lantern,"  observed 
Jane. 

"  Anything  on  earth  might  happen  to  a  negative  by 
our  lantern  and  we  not  know  it,"  I  agreed,  sadly. 

"Why  don't  you  get  another  lantern?"  said  Ma- 
donna ;  "I  read  a  beautiful  advertisement — 

"  These  lanterns  were  both  in  beautiful  advertise- 
ments," interrupted  my  partner,  before  I  could  make 
the  same  remark;  and  she  added,  in  a  bitter,  bitter  tone 
which  pained  rne — for  I  hate  to  witness  the  ravages  of 
photography  on  that  gentle  spirit,  but  the  little  book,  as 
we  say  in  Arkansas,  "  had  done  its  do :  " — "  You  can't 
believe  anything  they  say  in  advertisements  or  in  the 
photograph  books,  either !  " 

"  Why,  Jenny,  you  said  you  liked  Burton's  Printing 

so  much." 

37 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

"  I  don't  mean  him,"  said  Jane ;  "  I  don't  mean  any  of 
the  books  to  professionals ;  I  mean  the  amateur  books, 
photography-made-easy  kind  of  books.  But  we  might 
buy  another  lantern,  I  suppose.  It  could  not  well  be 
worse.  That  is  one  compensation." 

We  bought  a  lantern.  We  left  the  nature  of  the 
luminary  to  the  judgment  of  the  St.  Louis  firm  that  sup- 
plied us  with  photographic  implements.  They  sent  us 
very  good  drugs  and  other  things,  and  we  trusted  them. 
I  would  not  say  that  they  betrayed  our  trust.  The 
lantern  that  they  sent  gave  a  fair  amount  of  light,  and, 
until  it  exploded,  served  us  well.  Neither  did  it  ex- 
plode without  warning ;  it  used  to  make  hissing  and 
snorting  noises,  like  a  person  in  a  fit  of  some  kind,  and 
the  flame  would  flare  up  unpleasantly.  This  naturally 
was  sure  to  happen  when  we  were  at  the  most  critical 
juncture  in  the  evolution  of  the  negative;  consequently 
we  were  forced  to  continue,  but  we  felt  at  a  frightful 
risk ;  and  we  always  stood  ready  to  flee  for  our  lives. 

We  gave  it  air,  we  set  it  on  a  high,  dry  box;  but 
whatever  we  did,  the  instant  we  were  well  into  busi- 
ness, "Whir!  pshutt!  hiss-s-s!"  it  gurgled  and  sput- 
tered, and  the  flame  began  to  caper,  and  we  knew  that 
we  were  juggling  with  doom !  On  the  whole,  it  was  a 
relief  when  it  did  its  worst,  and  we  threw  the  fragments 
into  the  Black  River. 

I  cannot  recall  anything  about  our  next  lantern,  ex- 


WHERE    WE    THREW    THE    LANTERN. 


A  Makeshift  Studio 


cept  that  it  was  beneath  contempt.  Then,  saying  noth- 
ing, Madonna  sent  to  Philadelphia  for  the  Carbutt  lan- 
tern, which  has  been  a  comfort  to  us  ever  since.  But 
in  no  time  the  Carbutt  lantern  began  to  flicker ;  and  we 
almost  gave  up  hope.  We  examined  the  lantern  and  a 
common  lamp,  seeking  for  the  principles  of  combustion. 
We  did  not  find  many,  but  we  found  enough  to  be  sure 
that  a  lantern  standing  on  a  table,  generally  a  wet  table 
to  the  bargain,  does  not  get  enough  air.  We  hung  the 
Carbutt  lantern  on  the  wall,  and  it  has  never  flickered 
since.  That  is  our  theory  about  lanterns.  Hang  them  ! 

As  I  have  said,  however,  we  do  not  develop  by  the 
Carbutt  lantern;  we  light  it  to  give  additional  illumina- 
tion to  the  room ;  we  develop  by  a  common  lantern, 
placed  on  a  stand,  outside  our  orange  glass  window,  or 
by  a  common  white  light  kerosene  lamp,  without  any 
screen  whatever. 

With  such  a  light  there  is  no  hardship  in  developing. 
One  can  read  the  labels  as  well  as  see  the  bottles  in  any 
part  of  the  room.  Only  with  such  a  light,  moreover,  is 
it  possible  for  an  inexperienced  photographer  to  rescue 
injured  negatives. 

Most  of  our  apparatus  we  have  built  on  plans  culled 
from  the  "Mosaics"  (a  capital  annual  of  which  one  can- 
not easily  speak  too  highly),  or  from  some  other  photo- 
graphic journal.  That  pile  of  boxes  embodies  one  idea. 
They  are,  you  will  observe,  puttied  at  the  joints  and 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

lined  with  white  oilcloth.  The  oilcloth  has  no  seams, 
and  the  tacks  that  secure  it  are  all  on  the  outside  of  the 
box.  Thus  you  have  a  perfectly  innocent,  deep  tray, 
for  toning  or  washing.  And  they  are  so  cheap  that 
one  may  have  plenty  of  them.  Our  hypo  we  keep 
on  a  stand  by  itself.  It  has  its  own  measuring  glass, 
its  own  wooden  stick  for  stirring,  and  its  own  boxes. 
Thanks  to  our  exclusiveness,  hypo  has  wrought  very 
little  mischief  among  us.  We  discovered  very  soon 
that  the  fixing  of  negatives  by  laying  them  flat  on 
their  backs  in  the  hypo,  is  attended  with  many  disad- 
vantages. Any  sediment  in  the  bath  will  get  on  to  the 
film  of  the  negative,  and  there  is  not  such  quick  fixing  as 
when  the  plate  stands  upright.  For  our  hypo  bath  we 
have  flat  boxes  for  prints,  but  for  negatives,  a  deep  box 
lined  with  oilcloth,  with  strips  of  smooth  wood  on  op- 
posite sides.  Each  strip  has  little  grooves  to  hold  the 
negative  firmly  to  its  work.  We  saw  out  the  grooves 
with  a  tiny  saw  we  have,  and  use  half  a  dozen  of  the 
tools  that  come  in  a  handle;  and  make  considerable  fuss 
over  the  matter;  but  I  suspect  that  an  ordinary  pen- 
knife could  do  the  business  just  as  well. 

We  have  a  quantity  of  porcelain  trays  and  rubber 
and  enamelled-tin  trays,  and  we  did  have  glass  trays 
until  they  broke — the  average  life  of  the  glass  tray  is 
two  weeks — but  for  washing  and  fixing  nothing  excels 
the  boxes  with  the  oilcloth  lining. 
40 


A  Makeshift  Studio 


I  don't  understand  how  professional  photographers 
get  along  without  boiling  water  for  washing;  we  always 
use  it,  and  when  the  weather  grows  too  warm  to  depend 
on  the  kitchen  supply,  we  have  both  an  alcohol  lamp 
and  a  wee  oil  stove. 

We  could  not  carry  on  the  business  without  a  dozen 
or  so  of  printing  frames,  and  almost  as  many  glass 
graduates  of  various  sizes,  and  a  beautiful  pair  of 
apothecaries'  scales.  For  a  while  we  used  to  keep  our 
negatives  in  a  box  of  polished  wood  which  cost  us  two 
dollars;  but  when  our  large  following  of  the  camera, 
outgrew  their  quarters,  we  stored  them  (in  envelopes 
which  we  made  ourselves  out  of  yellow  Manila  paper) 
in  a  cast-off  packing-box  that  did  not  cost  us  a  cent. 
The  envelopes  are  marked  legibly,  and  bear  the  name 
and  developing  pedigree  of  the  negative  within;  and 
they  stand  in  rows  in  the  box  with  their  names  in 
sight,  the  bromide  negatives  in  one  box,  the  platino- 
type  in  another,  and  the  albumen  in  a  third. 

Any  facts  of  interest  in  the  career  of  a  negative  are 
written  on  the  envelope.  There  is  a  semicircular  por- 
tion cut  out  of  the  front  of  each  envelope  to  facilitate 
handling.  All  this  sounds  very  orderly ;  and  the  little 
mottoes  with  which  one  of  us  adorned  the  walls  of  the 
studio,  on  an  idle  afternoon,  are  of  the  sternest  moral 
cast,  like  "To-Day  is  Ours" — naturally  the  favorite  of 

the   procrastinating   partner — but  the  painful  truth  is 
41 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

that  our  studio  is  the  most  determinedly  untidy  room 
on  the  plantation,  bar  none!  As  I  have  intimated 
before,  we  are  coming  to  believe  that  occult  forces 
sway  matter.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  intelligences  too  low 
and  mean  even  to  be  allowed  in  pigs  or  rats  or  a  cer- 
tain little  black  and  white  brute  shunned  by  all,  rul- 
ing things,  totally  depraved  things.  These  "obsessed" 
creatures  swarm  in  our  studio.  They  love  to  bewitch 
the  tub,  which  promptly  springs  a  leak  and  floods  our 
floor  with  poison ;  this  is  to  lure  the  cat  and  the  dogs 
(good,  well-bred,  high-descended,  imported  dogs  that 
cost  money)  to  an  awful  death !  They  hope,  also,  that 
the  baneful  fluids  will  trickle  through  the  cracks  of  the 
floor  and  flow  off  under  the  house  into  the  back -yard, 
and  that  Jane's  special  pets,  the  high  and  well-born 
hens,  imported  in  the  shell,  at  vast  expense,  may  drink 
and  die.  They  would  fairly  revel  in  that! 

Pending  our  gradual  destruction,  they  do  their  best 
to  fill  the  room  with  dust  and  to  suggest  to  the  cook 
that  it  would  make  a  good  storeroom. 

Being  printing  room,  dark  room,  and  pharmacy,  we 
have  so  many  traps  about  that  we  must  be  tidy  as  a 
sailor  to  keep  any  space  vacant  in  the  middle  of  the 
room  or  on  the  tables.  We  are  not  tidy  as  a  sailor,  we 
are  more  like  the  inhabitants  of  Italy  whom  Mark 
Twain  found  "always  washing  and  never  clean!" 

In  consequence,  during  the  photographic  season,  we 
42- 


A  Makeshift  Studio 


have  weekly  seasons  of  house-cleaning  that  take  up 
almost  as  much  time  as  regular  work ;  and  I  am  at  the 
point  of  taking  an  apprentice  to  teach  him  the  business, 
just  as  country  lawyers  teach  law,  beginning  with 
sweeping  and  dusting  and  washing,  and  so  climbing  up 
to  abstract  principles.  The  only  difficulty  will  be  to 
find  the  apprentice. 

43 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  NEGATIVE,  ITS  MARK:  A  LONG  CHAPTER,  INCLUD- 
ING THE  PHOTOGRAPHIC  SKY,  CAN  WE  SAVE  IT? 
WHITE  LIGHT  DEVELOPMENT,  ORTHOCHROMATIC 
PLATES,  FILMS,  THE  VARIOUS  PLATES  AND  DEVEL- 
OPERS, AND  THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  THE  INSTANTA- 
NEOUS SHUTTER 

A  CELEBRATED  whist  expert,  at  the  close  of  a  lucid 
treatise  on  "the  noblest  game,"  remarks  something  to 
this  effect:  "These  rules  hold  good  where  there  are  not 
exceptions,  but  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  whist  is 
everlastingly  exceptional ! " 

So  is  a  negative.  There  is  nothing  regular  or  moral 
about  the  conduct  of  a  gelatine  dry  plate.  The  only 
thing  to  be  expected  from  it  is  a  surprise.  You  are  told 
that  a  negative  belongs  to  three  classes,  the  under 
exposed,  the  over  exposed,  and  the  normally  exposed; 
but  you  are  not  told  that  the  chances  are  about  one  in 
a  hundred  that  your  particular  negatives  will  hit  on  a 
normal,  proper,  perfect  exposure;  and  you  are  not  told 
that  you  may  easily  contrive  to  get  all  three  exposures 
in  varying  degrees  into  one  negative.  Nevertheless,  my 
friend,  you  may  and  you  will. 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


An  over-exposed  plate  has  plenty  of  detail,  but  jumps 
out  of  the  developer  in  such  a  hurry  that  it  does  not 
get  its  density  on  before  it  is  all  out;  it  is  thin,  the 
shadows  are  poor,  there  are  no  high  lights,  the  sky  is  a 
dull  half-tone;  it  looks  like  a  lead-pencil  drawing. 

The  under  exposed  are  the  reverse  of  this ;  in  them 
the  half-tones  are  wanting,  there  are  violent  blacks  and 
whites,  detail  is  masked  in  shadow;  they  look  harsh 
and  unfinished.  Under-exposed  negatives  come  up 
slowly;  they  hang  back  and  must  be  whipped  to  their 
work  with  alkalies,  and  after  a  certain  point  they  jib, 
and  are  no  more  to  be  moved  than  a  jibbing  horse.  The 
doctors  differ  in  regard  to  them.  Most  hold  that  there 
is  nothing  more  on  the  plate,  and  it  is  hopeless  to  get  it 
oat.  But  there  is  another  school  maintaining  that  the 
sun  makes  all  the  picture;  it  is  but  the  weakness  of  the 
developer  and  the  ignorance  of  the  operator  that  hinders 
the  luring  out  of  the  details.  We  are  not  scientific, 
Jane  and  I,  and  we  profess  no  opinion ;  we  simply 
know  that  eikonogen  will  get  more  out  of  a  sullen  plate 
than  either  pyro  or  hydroquinone. 

The  normally  exposed  negative  should  (according  to 
the  books — we  never  have  had  any  such  children  of  light) 
appear  in  about  a  minute  and  a  half;  it  should  develop 
harmoniously  and  evenly  (ours  never  did) ;  the  clouds 
in  the  bright  sky,  and  the  delicate  shadows  of  the 

child's  white  frock  forming  and  shaping  themselves  in 

45 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


sweet  communion  with  the  leaves  of  the  dense  shrub- 
bery and  the  half-tints  of  the  lawn. 

The  over-exposed  ought  never  to  act  like  the  under- 
exposed. There,  again,  we  were  vanquished  by  excep- 
tions; it  was  as  easy  for  our  under-exposed  plates  to 
thin  out  like  over-exposed  plates  as  it  was  for  half  the 
picture  to  "flash,"  while  the  other  half  didn't  stir.  We 
supposed,  for  our  comfort,  that  a  negative  could  be  thin 
or  it  could  be  dense,  it  could  not  be  both.  Ours  can  ! 
We  have  had  negatives  stained  with  pretty  nearly 
every  photographic  crime;  that  were  thin  without 
detail,  and  dense  without  contrast ;  and  made  as  un- 
manageable bromides  as  they  did  anything  else.  We 
have  had  under  exposures  as  thin  as  over  exposures. 
Our  over  exposures,  on  the  other  hand,  have  loved  to 
act,  under  our  gentle  first  developer,  like  under-exposed 
negatives,  thus  inveigling  us  on  and  on  into  stronger 
and  stronger  developer ;  then  they  would  pretend  that  the 
developer  was  too  strong  for  them,  and  come  up  in  a  flash, 
with  a  fog  for  the  sky  and  a  smudge  for  the  shadows. 

During  the  greater  part  of  our  first  year  it  was  a 
sheer  matter  of  chance  how  our  negatives  should  turn 
out  We  knew  that  they  were  under-exposed,  if  we 
could  not  coax  a  mark  out  of  the  plate ;  we  supposed 
that  they  were  over-exposed  if  they  were  thin,  but  with 
plenty  of  detail ;  and  when  they  were  thin  without  detail 
we  gave  it  up  1 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


Such  a  wild  dream  as  stopping  an  over-exposed  plate 
on  its  way  to  ruin,  never  occurred  to  us ;  it  was  the  ruin 
that  revealed  to  us,  first,  that  it  was  over-exposed.  We 
had  a  one-solution  developer  that  came  with  the  camera, 
and  when  it  was  gone — and  how  quickly  it  went,  that 
developer,  that  told  us  on  its  outside  that  it  ought 
to  develop  fifty  plates ! — we  sent  for  some  more,  and 
the  sad  scene  was  repeated.  For,  doubtless,  some  wise 
reason,  the  amateur,  in  his  darkling  first  experiences, 
succeeds  in  making,  now  and  then,  a  really  good  nega- 
tive. He  doesn't  make  it,  it  makes  itself!  Generally, 
he  spoils  it  in  the  varnishing.  But  it  keeps  him  from 
entire  despair.  Out  of  at  least  half  a  dozen  boxes  of 
plates  we  secured  four  good  negatives.  That  first 
winter  our  dark  room  was  a  school  for  the  perseverance 
of  the  saints.  I  used  to  see  the  halo,  sometimes,  so 
distinctly  encircling  Jane's  brow  that  I  almost  feared  for 
the  plates  !  I  admired  the  sight — particularly  on  those 
occasions  when  I  put  the  plates  in  wrong  side  up,  and 
they  were  developed  weirdly  in  patches.  What  a 
beautiful  quality  is  patience!  Can  we  pray  for  any 
fairer  gift  for  our  nearest  and  dearest?  If  they  only 
have  it,  it  is  not  so  much  matter  about  us.  I  am 
willing  that  Jane  should  have  patience  for  two. 

Our  first  gleam  of  light  in  our  murky  ignorance  was 
the  discovery  that  an  under-exposed  plate  may  have  the 

right  to  be  thin.     The  action  of  light  in  making  con- 

47 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


trast  increases  up  to  a  certain  point,  then  it  decreases 
in  apparently  the  same  ratio. 

"Don't  you  reckon,  then,  that  those  negatives  we  ex- 
posed so  short  a  time,  and  yet  they  were  so  thin,  were 
under-exposed  after  all  ?  "  said  Jane. 

"  I  reckon,"  I  answered. 

Our  next  discovery  concerned  the  whole  nature  of 
exposure;  we  came  to  it  slowly  and  painfully,  of  our 
own  motion.  Later  we  were  confirmed  in  it  by  the 
authorities. 

Jane  expressed  it  in  one  sentence,  not  a  stiff,  gram- 
matical, rhetorical  sentence,  but  one  full  of  rugged 
truth:  "We  have  got  to  look  at  the  things  we  take, 
as  well  as  the  light,"  said  she. 

You  cannot  (at  least  we  cannot)  expect  to  find  a  stupid 
scene  monotonously  lighted,  and  to  enchant  it  into  a 
brilliant  negative  by  simple  conjuring  of  development. 
We  came  to  divide  our  subjects  into  very  much  the 
three  classes  of  M.  Londe,  namely,  "  Subjects  which 
have  a  perfect  harmony  of  tone  gradation ;  subjects 
which  present  strong  contrasts  and  oppositions ;  and 
subjects  which  have  not  enough  contrast  and  opposi- 
tion, and  are  consequently  weak." 

After  we  took  the  blacksmith  shop,  with  its  blazing 
white  walls  and  road,  and  its  dark,  dark  water-oak  tree 
and  its  dusky  depths  within,  of  a  sunny  morning,  we 

concluded  that  a  little  over-exposure  would  have  had  a 

48 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


softening,  soothing  effect  on  such  exaggerated  chiaro- 
oscuro.  A  few  seconds  extra  exposure  would  have 
saved  an  hour  or  two  puttering  with  a  reducer.  After 
we  took  any  number  of  monotonous,  palely  lighted 
pictures,  it  occurred  to  us  that  a  shorter  exposure 
would  have  done  no  harm,  and  might  have  given  the 
scene's  weak  character  a  fillip. 

And  then  it  was  that  we  came  upon  the  whole 
subject  clearly  discussed,  and  all  the  obscure  places 
illuminated  by  good  sense.  We  found  it  in  a  little 
book  on  the  development  of  the  negative,  by  the  Rev. 
W.  H.  Burbank.  Mr.  Burbank  advised  over-exposures 
for  harsh  contradictory  subjects,  short  exposures  for  tame 
subjects,  and  normal  exposures  for  harmonious  subjects. 

He  did  not  need  to  tell  us  of  the  enormous  increase  in 
the  radiant  energy  of  light  during  the  summer  months; 
we  had  discovered  that  in  the  surest  possible  way,  at  the 
expense  of  less  than  two  dozen  plates. 

By  this  time  we  were  so  far  along  that  we  had 
ambitious  dreams  of  remedying  exposures.  To  a  skilful 
operator  no  exposure  is  hopeless  that  has  been  exposed 
enough ;  the  only  unpardonable  sin  in  taking  a  picture 
is  not  to  expose  enough  ;  and  some  of  us  hope  one  day 
for  a  developer  that  will  compassionate  even  that. 

Our  first  real  advance  in  development  was  made 
when  we  read  Burton's  recommendation  of  the  tentative 
method. 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

"Why,  isn't  it  perfectly  sensible?  "  said  Jane;  "you 
put  your  negative  into  a  very  weak  developer  to  try  it; 
then  if  it  is  not  strong  enough  put  in  a  little  more 
density,  and  then  add  the  alkali  drop  by  drop,  changing 
the  proportions  to  suit  the  case.  I  mean  to  try  it." 

We  have  tried  it  ever  since,  with  continually  increas- 
ing confidence  in  the  method  and  gratitude  to  the  first 
suggester. 

We  always  put  the  plate  into  the  plate-holder  in  the 
first  place  in  absolute  darkness.  Moonlight,  however, 
does  not  seem  to  affect  the  gelatine.  Several  times  we 
have  been  obliged  to  put  in  our  plates  by  moonlight, 
and  there  was  no  ill  effect.  When  the  time  for  develop- 
ment comes  we  remove  the  plates  from  the  holders  and 
slip  them  into  the  traj^s  prepared  for  them,  with  a  bath 
of  developer.  Then  we  cover  them  with  stiff  paste- 
board or  wooden  covers,  painted  black.  All  so  far  in 
total  darkness.  Before  we  put  our  plates  into  the 
holders,  and  before  we  put  them  into  the  negative 
baths,  we  always  carefully  dust  them  off;  we  also  wipe 
the  inside  of  our  camera  with  a  damp  cloth  (a  bit  of 
valuable  advice  that  we  obtained  in  the  "Photographic 
Annual "  of  1890,  from  O.  P.  Havens) ;  we  find  it 
simpler  and  less  wearing  on  the  moral  nature  to  brush 
off  our  pinholes  in  advance  than  to  stop  them  out  after- 
wards. 

Since  we  took  a  fond  farewell   of  our  one-solution 
50 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


developer  we  Lave  had  no  Procrustean  system  of 
development.  Our  treatment  varies  according  to  the 
exposure,  the  subject,  and  the  plate.  Taking  assuredly 
under-exposed  subjects,  we  should  be  likely  to  soak 
them  in  a  weak  solution  of  alkali  (a  five-per-cent.  solu- 
tion, let  us  say)  such  as  welcomes  the  instantaneous 
negatives.  Taking  them  out  of  the  alkali  we  should  see 
what  eikonogen  or  para-midophenol  could  do  for  their 
obtuse  nature,  beginning  with  a  weak  solution,  and 
gradually  adding  the  alkali  and  then  a  little  more 
density. 

For  ordinary  exposures  we  like  to  start  with  a  weak 
solution  of  the  developer,  whatever  it  may  be,  adding 
the  alkali  very  cautiously,  developing  for  detail  first  and 
then  putting  the  negative  into  the  density  solution  to 
obtain  density.  For  undoubted  over-exposures  we  start 
always  with  a  weak  solution  of  the  developer,  without 
any  alkali,  and  add  very  little,  if  any,  alkali.  We  have 
developed  negatives  in  the  eikonogen  solution  alone, 
adding  no  alkali,  letting  the  sulphite  of  sodium,  com- 
bined with  the  developer,  do  the  whole  alkali  work. 
We  prefer  restraining  with  the  developer,  weakening  it 
with  water,  rather  than  trying  to  hold  it  back  by 
bromides,  but  bromides  are  better  than  old  developer. 
Water  makes  a  negative  softer,  so  that  a  good  way  with 
a  negative  known  to  have  harsh  contrasts  is  to  soak  it 

in  a  tray  of  water  before  development 
51 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

Old  developer  is  the  favorite  of  many  photographers; 
it  is  not  ours,  we  being  willing  to  make  affidavit  that  it 
tends  to  too  great  contrasts,  to  masking  the  half- tints 
and  to  mussing  the  shadows.  Nevertheless,  we  keep  a 
little  always  on  hand.  But  we  do  it  in  the  spirit  of 
those  stern  temperance  people,  who  keep  a  bottle  of 
brandy  in  the  house  for  sickness  ;  we  don't  really  think 
it  does  any  good,  but  we  are  afraid  to  be  without  it. 

An  over-exposed  negative  will  sometimes  become 
a  delightful  picture  by  slow  development,  using  alter- 
nate trays  of  the  alkali  and  the  developer  proper. 
We  have  obtained  excellent  results  by  weakening  the 
developer  only  in  the  alkali,  giving  full  strength  of 
eikonogen. 

We  have  come  to  prefer  a  slight  over-exposure,  as  it 
insures  the  whole  story  about  the  landscape,  every  stick 
and  stone  of  it.  But,  to  obtain  the  whole  truth  about 
the  foliage,  one  must  expose  a  scene  too  long  for  the 
sky  and  the  brightly  lighted  portions. 

In  the  normal  exposures  we  begin  with  a  weak 
developer,  but  it  is  weakened  by  water,  and  has  both 
alkali  and  eiko  or  other  developing  agent  in  it,  in  the 
normal  proportions,  while  the  over-exposed  has  either 
no  alkali  or  the  merest  trace  of  it,  and  the  under-exposed 
has  more  alkali  than  the  normal  developer  contains. 
Yet  even  here  the  subject  casts  foregleams  of  advice. 

Where   the    under   exposure    has   been    deliberate,    to 
52 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 

secure  more  contrast  in  a  landscape  of  commonplace 
lighting,  a  slow  development  with  a  restrainer  will  help 
the  contrast  and  bring  out  the  half-tones. 

After  we  have  covered  our  negatives — we  develop 
several  at  a  time  on  account  of  the  brevity  of  life  and 
the  length  of  development — we  wait  perhaps  five  min- 
utes, and  then  take  a  peep  by  the  yellow  light  at  the 
first  one.  Sometimes  the  picture  will  be  distinctly 
visible.  More  often  only  a  little  darkening  in  the  upper 
side  will  hint-  the  dawning  of  the  sky.  We  shake  the 
tray  a  little,  add  what  the  case  seems  to  require  in  the 
way  of  developer,  and  go  on  to  the  next  object  of  solici- 
tude. Presently  we  return  to  our  first,  which  now  has 
blocked  out  a  shadowy,  unreal  landscape,  with  black  sky 
and  white  trees.  Here  and  there,  the  details  begin  to 
shape  themselves,  patches  of  high  light  on  the  fences, 
glints  on  the  leafage,  fleecy  clouds  in  the  sky.  We 
lift  the  little  tray,  carry  it  boldly  to  the  yellow  light, 
and  examine  it. 

"  It  is  corning,"  pronounces  the  operator;  "  nice  sky !  " 

"Anything  else  but  sky  visible?  How  is  the  foli- 
age? "  asks  the  other  operator. 

"  Dense,"  is  the  mournful  answer,  "  it  hasn't  put  out  a 
twig  yet.  I  am  going  to  paint  it  with  concentrated 
developer,  to  try  to  spare  the  sky ;  everything  else  is 
coming  all  right,  good  detail.  Only  the  foliage  sticks 
fast." 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


Alas!  as  she  works,  she  wearies  of  painting  and  adds 
a  more  powerful  pusher,  and  little  by  little  the  ani- 
mated, lovely  sky  grows  blacker  and  blacker — which 
means,  eventually,  whiter  and  whiter — until  it  is  resolv- 
ing itself  into  cloudless,  blank,  unshaded  space. 

"  How  shall  we  save  our  beautiful  skies  ?  "  we  used 
to  demand  pathetically  of  the  universe  in  general ;  and 
the  universe  didn't  bother  itself  to  answer. 

We  consulted  all  the  books.  That  is,  all  the  books 
that  we  could  find.  They  recommended  an  orthochro- 
matic  plate.  They  were  sad,  not  to  say  cynical,  with 
regard  to  skies  on  ordinary  plates.  Burton  said  that 
only  a  mere  trace  of  a  sky  appears,  and  recommended 
':  printing  in  "  skies. 

From  the  books  we  went  to  the  professional  and  the 
amateur  photographers  of  our  acquaintance,  including 
two  skilful  and  modest  photographers  in  Davenport, 
and  one  superior  boy  in  a  Boston  establishment.  One 
of  the  Davenport  photographers  favored  his  sky  by 
tilting  the  tray,  and  developing  the  foliage  and  grass, 
leaving  the  sky  only  an  intermittent  wave. 

The  celebrated  photographer  who  told  his  experiences 
in  Scribner's  Magazine  about  this  time,  painted  his  foli- 
age, or  any  under-exposed  parts,  in  strong  developer, 
using  a  camel's-hair  brush,  and  flowing  the  brushed  por- 
tions immediately,  to  guard  against  any  line  of  demarca- 
tion showing. 

54 


A    SUMMER    SKY. 
(A    carbutt  eclipse    sky.) 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


We  followed — as  usual — the  advice  of  all,  and  let  the 
different  theories  fight  it  out  for  themselves.  We  use 
orthochromatie  plates,  and  like  them  ;  but  both  of  us 
having  been  born  and  bred  in  New  England  and  trained 
to  respect  the  truth,  we  have  to  add  that  we  have 
obtained  every  whit  as  good  skies  from  the  ordinary 
Carbutt  B,  or  Special,  or  Eclipse,  or  the  Seeds  23,  24,  or 
26,  or  the  Eagle  Lightning  plates,  as  from  the  orthochro- 
matie plates.  In  the  group  of  sky  negatives  that  is 
given  in  this  chapter  one  was  taken  on  orthochromatie 
and  the  other  two  on  ordinary  plates,  and  we  could  not 
honestly  decide  between  the  skies.  But  there  are  other 
advantages  of  the  orthochromatie  plates  that  endear 
them  to  us,  notably  their  rendering  of  half-tints  and 
values. 

We  find  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  we  can  get  a 
sky  out  on  the  negative  if  there  was  a  sky  on  the  plate. 
And  it  is  our  opinion  that  ninety-nine  times  out  of  a 
hundred,  when  there  is  anything  going  on  in  the  sky,  it 
will  be  repeated  on  the  plate.  And  you  can't  really  ask 
a  negative  to  make  up  a  sky  out  of  its  head ! 

Mr.  Cramer,  I  see,  asserts  that  the  ordinary  plate  can- 
not take  white  clouds,  it  can  only  take  dark  ones.  But, 
"  speaking  with  respect,"  we  have  had  ordinary  plates, 
without  seeming  to  strain  themselves  at  all,  take  white 
clouds  in  a  dark  sky,  or,  rather,  in  a  sky  just  off  the 

white  tint, 

55 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


At  first  these  pretty  skies  appeared  on  thiii  negatives, 
but  we  have,  for  a  long  time,  been  getting  them  -almost 
as  freely  on  strong  negatives.  But  we  have  never 
found  them  on  negatives  developed  very  quickly,  and, 
indeed,  they  never  favored  us  until  we  used  the  tentative 
method. 

We  give  our  skies  every  luxury  and  advantage  in 
our  power.  We  develop  them  slowly  and  carefully. 
After  they  are  out,  we  paint  the  greenery  and  the  dis- 
tance with  special  developer,  but  we  develop  in  devel- 
oper that  will  not  harm  the  skies.  We  put  the  nega- 
tive in  a  tray  of  water,  development  being  advanced 
sufficiently  so  far  as  the  high  lights  and  half-tones  are 
concerned,  and  then  we  paint  the  deep  shadows,  wash- 
ing off  the  edges  by  rocking  the  tray  after  every  paint- 
ing. One  should  be  careful,  however,  for  the  strong 
developer,  even  without  the  u  pusher  "  (which  is  a  sort 
of  hair-trigger  explosive,  likely  to  shoot  the  owner)  is 
no  promoter  of  recklessness,  but  a  quick-tempered  and 
sensitive  nature  that  must  be  spoken  fair. 

If,  in  spite  of  brushing  until  incipient  fog  warns  "hands 
off,"  the  foliage  will  not  come,  all  is  not  lost.  Give  the 
foliage  its  protracted  bath  of  stronger  developer  instead 
of  its  quick  flashes  of  the  strongest;  it  will  come  out 
with  all  the  delicate  gradations  that  you  are  seeking. 
True,  the  sky,  the  charming,  varied,  natural  sky,  will  be 

darkened  to   blackness ;    but  it  is  not  a  case  of   lost, 
56 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 

only  of  temporary  disappearance.  We  develop  our 
negatives  to  the  last  shrub.  If  the  sky  has  gone  off 
in  a  fit  of  sulks,  we  bring  it  back !  After  fixing,  we 
prepare  a  small  quantity  of  Farmer's  Solution  for  reduc- 
ing negatives,  place  the  negative  in  a  tray  of  fresh  water, 
tilt  the  water  away  from  the  sky,  and  neatly  wash  that 
sky  with  a  half-inch  camel's-hair  brush.  The  result  is 
an  almost  immediate  reduction.  You  have  to  be  cau- 
tious lest  the  reducing  solution  trickle  down  on  to  any 
other  part  of  the  plate.  But  so  far  as  reducing  the 
high  lights  goes,  it  is  a  complete  success. 

We  had  an  interior  that  we  liked,  but  it  had  a 
window  that  was  simply  a  splash  of  dead  white.  We 
reduced  the  window  and  the  tablecloth  of  the  table. 
The  vine  on  the  other  side  of  the  window  appeared,  and 
a  dab  of  out-of-focus  scenery  beyond,  likewise  the  pat- 
tern of  the  tablecloth. 

Negatives  too  sharply  contrasted  can  be  safely  and 
evenly  reduced  by  adding  the  solution  drop  by  drop  to 
a  water-bath,  and  rocking  the  negative  therein.  The 
treatment  for  a  negative  is  a  good  deal  like  the  treat- 
ment for  a  child.  Jane  and  I,  having  had  nephews  and 
nieces  upon  whom  to  experiment  at  a  safe  distance,  are 
naturally  full  of  theories  about  the  proper  training  of 
children.  We  are  not  hampered  by  the  bewildered  dis- 
couragement that  besets  the  mother  of  six,  who  has 

tried  a  promising  assortment  of  theories  and  found  them 
57 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


all  going  the  wrong  way.  But  we  know  how  she  feels ; 
we  have  had  much  the  same  experience  with  our  nega- 
tives. I  could  not  lay  my  hand  on  my  heart  and  tell 
the  confiding  buyer  of  this  book  that  any  treatment 
would  save  any  particular  negative.  No,  negatives  are 
like  children,  every  one  must  have  an  individual  treat- 
ment of  its  own,  based  on  an  individual  study  of  its 
character.  To  deal  justly  by  a  negative,  the  operator 
must  know  the  character  of  the  exposure,  the  nature  of 
the  subject,  the  make  of  the  plate,  and  the  peculiarities 
of  the  developer.  He  must  watch  every  mood  narrowly, 
and  adapt  his  action.  If  the  picture  hang  back  sul- 
lenly, he  must  coax  it  (not  drive  it  forward)  with  minute 
doses  of  alkali  ;  if  it  is  in  too  great  a  hurrv,  he  must 
restrain  it  with  a  weaker  alkali  developer  and  more  of 
the  density  solution.  He  must  always  be  ready  to  give 
it  a  dose  of  bromide,  or  citrate  and  water.  And  he 
must  have  a  patience  that  is  willing  to  sit  out  the  even- 
ing rather  than  be  conquered  by  the  naughty  child. 
Often  an  under-exposed  negative,  that  would  be  ruined 
by  a  concentrated  developer  surprising  its  crude  nature, 
will  develop  harmoniously  if  given  plenty  of  time  and  a 
gradually  strengthened  developer. 

When  a  negative  has  nearly  developed,  it  is  said  to  be 
a  good  plan  (I  say    "  said,''  because  we  really  cannot 
decide  whether  our  negatives,  so  developed,  are  a  pin- 
head's  worth  better  than  any  of  the  others.     It  is  one  of 
58 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 

the  examples  of  the  hiatus  between  fact  and  theory  to 
which  I  have  referred — all  mothers  will  understand  me) 
to  take  such  a  negative  and  let  it  rest  quietly  in  a  tray 
of  clean  water.  The  theory  supposes  the  water  to  make, 
with  the  developer  already  in  the  negative  film,  a  kind 
of  dilute  developer,  that  will  work  slowly  while  a  par- 
ticle remains.  It  is  a  very  nice,  plausible  supposition. 
Our  only  objection  to  it  is  the  paltry  one  of  experience, 
already  mentioned. 

As  the  development  proceeds,  the  next  pressing  ques- 
tion is,  When  shall  we  stop  ? 

Jane  and  I  used  to  discuss  that  question  innumerable 
times  at  first.  We  were  always  stopping  our  develop- 
ment before  the  details  were  fairly  out,  for  fear  of  fog 
from  over-development — a  disaster,  by  the  way,  that 
has  never  once  befallen  us. 

I  don't  know  any  better  advice  than  Burton's  and 
Burbank's  and,  I  think,  Abney's,  to  stop  development 
when  all  detail  seems  to  be  out,  and  the  image  is  visible 
on  the  glass  side,  the  high  lights  showing  plainly. 

Our  well-lighted  dark  room  has  scared  away  this 
early  ogre.  We  can  see,  now,  when  the  details  have 
come ;  we  used  to  have  to  guess. 

During  the  development  we  soon  began  to  observe 
the  influence  of  temperature.  If  the  weather  is  too 
cold,  your  negatives,  oh,  gentle  photographing  brother} 
will  stick;  if  it  is  too  warm,  they  will  race  at  a  frantic 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


pace.      The   ideal    temperature    is    from    sixty-five    to 
seventy  degrees. 

Another  trouble  for  negatives  is  not  so  easily 
remedied  as  temperature.  Some  plates,  or,  to  be  just, 
some  developers,  and  particularly  my  dear  and  valued 
eikonogen,  are  untrusty  about  density.  They  assure 
you  solemnly  that  they  have  taken  all  the  density  that 
they  need,  that  their  little  insides  cannot  bear  one  atom 
more,  and  you  believe  them.  You  lift  up  the  negative ;  it 
is  beautiful !  Brilliant,  well-balanced,  richly  contrasted, 
it  makes  your  heart  swell  with  pride  !  You  wash  it  off, 
reflecting  on  the  brief  space  "of  time  that  it  has  taken  for 
you  to  become  a  master  of  your  art,  and  you  put  it  proud- 
ly into  the  hypo.  You  expect  to  gaze  upon  the  same 
picture  again  when  you  take  it  out — which  is  all  you 
know  about  it!  Out  of  that  hypo  will  come  the  pale 
ghost  of  your  superb  negative !  You  will  hardly  be 
able  to  believe  it  the  same.  In  this  way  eikonogen, 
which  has  almost  every  other  virtue  as  a  developer,  has 
caused  us  cruel  moments.  How  many  times  have  we 
done  what  Faust  saved  his  soul  by  not  doing,  and  said 
"  to  the  passing  moment  (of  the  development) :  '  Stay, 
thou  art  too  fair ! ' "  But  that  particular  moment  never 
did  stay ;  it  made  haste  to  hustle  its  beauty  off  in  the 
hypo,  and  tempt  us  to  quarrel  and  use  unseemly 
reproaches  the  one  to  the  other,  because  the  develop- 
ment had  not  been  prolonged. 
CO 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 

I  have  noticed  in  many  arts  that  there  comes  a  time 
when  the  causes  for  failure  seem  to  lose  their  potency. 
It  is  not  any  one  thing  that  the  student  does  after  he 
has  mastered  the  trade,  that  stops  them ;  they  simply  do 
not  harass  him  any  more.  A  good  cook  cannot  teach 
all  her  skill.  She  does  not  know  why  many  things 
happen,  herself;  she  puts  a  name  to  reasons  why  that 
which  nearly  ruined  her  dainties  now  disturbs  them  no 
more ;  but  it  is  only  a  form  of  words ;  in  her  secret 
soul  she  will  admit  as  much,  and  say  :  "  It  is  all  in  the 
knack."  Word  of  magic!  who  knows  what  it  means? 

There  is  a  "  knack "  about  development.  Once 
acquired,  the  caprices  of  negatives  become  harmless  as 
the  piping  of  chickens;  and  yet  one  hardly  can  say  how 
they  were  overquelled.  I  think  that  we  try  to  get  too 
much  density  with  these  exaggerating  developers,  leaving 
a  margin  for  the  future,  as  one  does  in  fish  stories  and 
horse  trades.  I  have  seen  negatives  that  seemed  nearly 
shrouded  in  density,  that  looked  ruined,  in  fact,  come 
out  of  the  hypo  clear  and  sharp,  and  give  first-rate 
prints !  And  I  have  seen  a  negative  that  did  nothing 
of  the  sort,  and  came  out  of  his  bath  the  same  sooty 
fellow.  In  this  event  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  reduc- 
ing. Reducing  is  safe  and  sure.  It  is  another  pair  of 
sleeves,  as  the  French  say,  to  intensify. 

We  still  keep  the  intensifying  solutions  with  which 

we  ruined  several  promising  young    negatives,    whose 
61 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


only  fault  was  that  they  were  not  intense.  We  do  not 
keep  the  negatives.  Neither  do  we  use  the  intensifier. 
If  we  have  a  thin  negative,  we  print  under  tissue  paper 
or  we  print  bromides.  The  bromide  loves  the  thin 
negative,  for  its  nature  is  to  increase  contrast. 

Intensifying  is  generally  a  dangerous  performance, 
sometimes  fatal  to  the  operator,  for  it  uses  deadly 
poisons,  and  it  is  almost  invariably  disappointing, 
wherefore  we  have  no  more  of  it. 

Having  developed  the  negative,  the  washing-bath  is 
the  next  step.  Some  of  those  people  who  hold  to  the 
doctrine  of  increase  of  trouble  being  necessarily  a  pro- 
portionate, or  disproportionate,  increase  in  excellence; 
tender  photographic  consciences  that  are  sure  a  thing 
must  be  helpful  if  it  can  only  be  made  enough  of  a 
bother,  will  have  it  that  the  developer  is  nearly  as 
tenacious  of  its  grip  as  the  hypo,  and  should  be  washed 
off  for  almost  as  long  a  time.  They  assert  that  it  mixes 
with  the  hypo,  and  goes  on  developing  at  a  prodigious 
rate  until  a  perfectly  developed  negative  comes  out  of 
the  fixing-bath  a  ruined  child.  They  have  the  example 
of  the  apparently  dense  eikonogen  negatives  that  emerge 
from  the  hypo  with  all  the  appearance  of  over-develop- 
ment, for  an  argument.  The  remedy,  of  course,  is  un- 
limited washing. 

Jane,  who  is  naturally  painstaking  and  conscientious, 
looked  on  this  theory  with  favor.  But  after  I  had 
G2 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


developed  a  dozen  or  so  eikonogen  negatives  and  found 
no  trouble  with  density  if  I  used  carbonate  of  potash 
instead  of  carbonate  of  soda,  and  in  all  the  cases  had 
merely  rinsed  them  off  with  the  perfunctory  haste  of  a 
child  washing  its  own  face,  it  did  occur  to  me  that  there 
was  a  leak  somewhere  in  that  stately  theory. 

As  usual,  we  compromised  with  our  experience. 
Now  we  rinse  the  negatives  off  in  running  water,  but 
before  this  is  done  they  have  generally  soaked  in  a  tray 
of  water  for  twenty  minutes. 

Our  negatives  washed,  they  are  fixed  in  hyposulphite 
of  soda.  I  suppose  that  a  chapter  might  be  written 
about  fixing  methods,  especially  were  the  writer  to  dip 
into  ancient  history,  and  the  tragedies  of  cyanide  of 
potassium.  At  first  we  used  a  bath  of  a  simple  satu- 
rated solution  of  hypo.  An  alum  bath  followed.  Then 
we  were  scared  by  the  evil  reports  regarding  alum,  and 
used  the  hypo  bath  alone.  It  did  well  enough  until  the 
warm  weather  came,  and  our  plates  began  to  "frill,"  and 
to  show  signs  of  intending  to  slip  off  the  glass  entirely. 
We  iced  the  developer,  we  iced  the  hypo ;  but  ice  is  not 
plentiful  enough  on  a  plantation  for  us  to  ice  the  hogs- 
head of  washing  water.  Then  we  came  upon  Carbutt's 
formula  for  a  fixing  bath.  We  found  it  in  the  dark 
room  of  the  amiable  professional  photographer  in 
Davenport,  already  mentioned.  He  had  used  it  with 

good  results.     We  have  used  it  ever  since.     It  will  be 
63 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

found  among  the  formulae  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 
Some  tried  and  true  formulae  will  be  given  for  amateurs 
who  wish  that  kind  of  thing. 

The  Carbuttfixing-bath  is  the  Seeds  also;  and,  indeed, 
is  a  favorite  often  given  in  the  books.  It  deserves  its 
popularity,  giving  a  film  tough,  glassy,  and  smooth — a 
film  to  be  trusted  in  warm  water.  We  have  used  the 
acid  sulphite  bath,  also.  There  seems  little  to  choose 
between  the  two. 

After  fixing  in  the  first  hypo  bath,  it  is  a  good  thing 
to  wash  the  negative  off  in  running  water,  which  will 
clear  the  plate  of  any  sediment  which  may  have  adhered 
to  it,  and  then  to  fix  for  twenty  minutes,  or  for  fifteen  if 
time  presses,  or  one  is  of  an  impetuous  temperament,  in 
fresh  and  weaker  hypo  solution.  When  we  take  it  out 
of  this  solution,  we  find  it  to  our  advantage  to  rinse  off 
the  negative  in  running  water  several  times  before  we 
put  it  in  the  negative-box  under  the  washing-barrel. 
And  we  repeat  the  operation  when  we  take  it  out.  We 
also  dry  the  little  globules  that  delight  to  collect  on 
glass.  We  dry  them  on  the  glass  side  of  the  plate,  with 
a  rag,  and  we  dry  them  on  the  negative  side,  with  a 
half-inch  camel's-hair  brush  in  the  first  place,  and  with 
absorbent  cotton  later. 

Then  we  place  a  negative  that  has  been  trained  in  the 
way  it  should  go,  and  ought  to  know  how  to  demean  it- 
self properly,  in  the  printing  frame,  upon  the  rack  to  dry. 
64 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


I  would  not  have  it  understood  that  we  always  take 
all  these  precautions ;  but  we  ought  to  take  them,  if  we 
don't,  and  we  are  never  sorry  when  we  do. 

The  next  thing  that  all  the  books  advise  is  to 
varnish  the  negative.  And  I  can  speak  of  our  varnish- 
ing method  with  a  confidence  the  reader  will  rarely,  if 
ever  again,  find  on  these  pages. 

Many  and  many  a  negative  that  might  (as  a  print) 
have  helped  to  make  home  happy,  has  been  hopelessly 
lost  by  negligent  or  mistaken  or  over-indulgent  varnish- 
ing. We  shivered  together  as,  in  a  low,  awestruck 
voice,  Jane  read  the  directions  for  varnishing. 

u  'Take  hold  of  the  plate,  which  has  previously  been 
made  perfectly  clean '  (he  speaks  as  if  to  scrub  a  gela- 
tine film  were  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world),  'and 
holding  it  as  level  as  possible,  pour  quite  deliberately, 
without  stopping  arid  with  a  firm,  true  hand,  as  quickly 
as  possible,  a  small  pool  of  the  varnish.  Lower,  in 
turn,  each  of  the  four  corners  of  the  plate,  thus  impart- 
ing a  kind  of  undulatory  motion.  Flow  the  varnish 
evenly  entirely  over  the  plate.  This  is  important.  Then 
pour  back  the  surplus  varnish  into  the  bottle,  but  do  not 
keep  the  plate  motionless  while  the  varnish  is  being 
drained  off;  give  it  a  slow,  rocking  motion  to  prevent 
the  formation  of  ridges.  All  should  be  done  deliber- 
ately, but  not  so  slowly  that  the  varnish  has  time  to  dry. 

It  should  never  fall  on  the  plate  in  drops,  but  in   an 
5  65 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


even  and  all  the  time  undulating  stream.     Do  not  allow 
a  particle  of  dust  to  strike  the  varnish  before  it  is  dry.' 

"And  here,"  Jane  added,  taking  up  one  of  our 
trustiest  guides,  "  here  is  what  Wilson  says  about  it : 
'By  any  convenient  method  heat  the  negative' — heat 
when  the  weather  is  almost  enough  to  peel  the  films  off 
the  plate" — this  was  before  we  used  our  improved  hypo 
bath — "  heat  '  until  the  hand  can  be  borne  upon  it 
without  pain.'  Then  he  does  like  the  other  man.  But 
listen  to  what  Mr.  England  does:  'The  method  I  have 
adopted  for  some  time  past  is  simple,  efficient,  and 
reliable.  .  .  .  It  is  to  flood  the  negative,  in  the  first 
place  with  dilute  amber  varnish,  and  when  dry  to  coat 
it  with  ordinary  hard  spirit  varnish.'  Two  times  of 
that  risky  proceeding!  It  seems  to  me  varnishing  is 
the  hardest  of  all!" 

"  Me  too !  "   said  the  partner,  dismally. 

"  Wilson  says :  '  All  the  labor  and  all  the  art  thus  far 
expended  upon  the  negative  may  be  sacrificed  by  heed- 
lessness  in  varnishing.'" 

"In  our  case  it  undoubtedly  would  be,"  said  I. 

"  He  says  some  varnishes  require  heat  both  for  their 
application  and  for  their  drying;  and  heat  is  so  hard  to 
manage.  And  it  will  have  to  dry  without  any  dust  and 
be  heated  at  the  same  time.  We  should  have  to  shut  it 
up  in  the  chest  with  a  spirit  lamp,  and  the  whole  thing 
might  take  fire — it  could!" 
66 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


"  Might,  could,  and  would ! "   said  I. 

"  It  almost  seems  too  dangerous  to  try,"  said  Jane. 

"  Quite  too  dangerous,"  said  I. 

''What  do  you  reckon  would  happen  if  we  didn't 
varnish  ?  "  said  she. 

UI  don't  know ;  let  us  try  and  find  out,"  said  I. 

We  did  try,  and  we  did  find  out.  We  have  never 
varnished  a  negative,  and  the  only  negative  ever  injured, 
whose  injuries  we  can  in  anywise  lay  to  its  unvarnished 
truth,  is  one  that  I  myself  spoiled  in  retouching.  It 
may  be  urged  that  had  that  negative  been  varnished  the 
varnish  could  have  been  removed  from  the  spoiled  part 
and  we  could  begin  over  again;  but  when  I  consider  the 
kind  of  mess  I  should  infallibly  make  removing  the 
varnish,  I  am  not  so  sure. 

We  fearlessly  recommend  to  any  amateur  either  be- 
ginning or  pursuing  the  study,  to  let  varnish  alone. 
If  he  fancies  that  I  exaggerate  the  difficulty  of  var- 
nishing, there  is  nothing  like  trying  a  little  pool  of 
varnish  on  a  spoiled  negative,  with  his  old  clothes  on, 
in  a  place  where  some  varnish  on  the  floor  is  not  objec- 
tionable. 

I  have  said  that  we  did  not  long  work  in  darkness 
with  our  developing.  But  it  was  not  until  about  two 
years  ago  that  we  found  Dr.  Higgins's  remarkable  white 
light  process ;  and  as  none  of  the  professional  photog- 
raphers that  we  have  visited  in  the  East  or  the  West, 
67 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

not  even  the  superior  boy  in  Boston,  seem  to  have  made 
trial  of  it,  our  experience  may  be  of  use. 

It  was  in  the  "  Photographic  Annual  "  for  1890  that  we 
first  saw  the  account  of  Dr.  Higgins's  discoveries.  The 
wagon  and  six  oxen  had  toiled  through  the  swamp  to 
the  railway  station  to  bring  us  an  anxiously  expected  pho- 
tograph box.  The  "  Annual "  was  in  the  box,  and  one  of 
us  fell  upon  it  at  once.  She  read  the  description  aloud. 

"Let  us  try  one  this  evening,"  cried  the  reckless 
experimenter  of  the  firm. 

"  We  haven't  any  oxalate  developer  made  up,"  said 
the  restraining  influence,  "  and  it  particularly  says  we 
need  that" 

"  I  don't  think  there  is  any  difference  in  the  light- 
defying  powers  of  developers,"  was  the  easy  answer; 
"  anyhow,  let  us  try  with  eikonogen,  we  have  plenty  of 
that  made  up.  If  it  shouldn't  work,  we  can  try  with 
the  iron ;  we  don't  care  much  for  those  mill  negatives 
that  we  have  taken  to-day,  anyhow." 

Not  deigning  any  direct  answer,  the  better  influence 
read  aloud  impressively  :  "  '  And  what  is  the  nature  of 
this  light-defying  mixture?  we  hear  you.  say.  On  the 
word  of  our  generous  friend,  it  is  nothing  but  that  well- 
known  mixture  of  bromide  and  iron  and  potash,  known 
as  the  ferrous  oxalate  developer — a  developer  yielding 
the  very  finest  of  negatives,  staining  neither  the  hands 
nor  plate.' " 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


She  added,  "  It  was  done  by  the  iron  developer  and 
gaslight." 

"Very  well,"  replied  the  cheerful  rash  one,  "  it  will 
be  done  to-night  by  the  eikonogen  developer  and  a  kero- 
sene lamp." 

"  Do  you  want  to  follow  the  directions  at  all  ?  Or 
will  you  just  plunge  into  white  light  development?  " 

"  I  shall  follow  the  directions  implicitly,  Jane,  except 
as  to  the  iron  developer.  The  way  I  look  at  it  is,  that 
the  plate  must  lose  sensitiveness  after  the  development 
begins,  and  that  is  the  secret.  If  I  am  right,  any 
developer  will  do  as  well  as  any  other.  If  I  am  wrong, 
tell  me  how  ever  do  we  manage  to  develop  our  nega- 
tives in  the  daylight,  with  the  light  seeping  into  our 
dark  room  the  way  it  does?" 

Jane  has  a  candid,  reasonable  soul ;  she  could  not 
gainsay  the  last  argument.  "  Well,  I  don't  care  much 
if  we  do  spoil  these  negatives,"  said  she,  pleasantly  ;  "  I'll 
tell  Jim  to  pump  the  barrel  full." 

"But  isn't  there  something  that  must  be  done  to  the 
plates  beforehand?  "  said  Madonna,  anxiously — she  was 
as  much  interested  in  our  new  tov  as  we;  "don't  thev 
have  to  be  put  into  the  plate-holder  in  '  total  dark- 
ness '  ?  " 

"  They  were  put  in  that  way,"  said  Jane  ;  "  we  read  an 
article  about  plates  being  fogged  before  they  were  ex- 
posed, by  the  red  light,  and  we  determined  to  put  ours 
69 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

in  without  any  light,  I  think  one  or  two  of  them  got 
wrong  side  out;  but  it  will  not  matter,  they  will  fog 
just  as  readily  with  the  white  light,  or  they  will  show 
they  haven't  fogged." 

That  night,  as  the  gibbous  moon  filled  our  east  ve- 
randa with  unearthly  radiance,  three  dark  figures  crossed 
its  lambent  glow  and  disappeared  in  the  shadows  of  an 
open  door.  Without,  the  wind  soughed  through  the 
leafless  trees;  within,  Jane  had  difficulty  with  a  lamp- 
wick,  and  said  she  somehow  felt  sure  the  experiment 
wouldn't  succeed.  The  three  scientists  were  alone,  our 
black  retainers  having  taken  the  gibbous  moon  to  light 
them  on  their  way  to  a  "  festival." 

Jane  prepared  a  tray  with  enough  developer  (a  feeble 
solution  of  eikonogen)  to  cover  a  negative  and  give  no 
chance  of  a  huge  spot  out  in  the  air.  The  negative  was 
removed  from  the  slide  and  slipped  into  this  tray  in 
absolute  darkness  by  one  who  shall  be  nameless.  Be- 
fore putting  the  plate  into  the  tray  it  was  brushed  as 
usual ;  after  it  was  in  the  tray  the  operator  rubbed  it 
over  with  her  finger,  which  is  something  she  always 
does,  to  break  it  gently  to  a  negative  that  it  is  now  in 
the  developer  and  can't  get  out  and  may  as  well  behave. 
A  black  cover  was  placed  on  the  tray.  The  lamp  was 
lighted.  Jane  read  from  the  book  the  account  of  Dr. 
Higgins's  success.  '"Let  the  plate  remain  for  two  or 
three  minutes,'  "  she  read. 

70 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 

"  It  is  almost  five ! "  cried  Madonna  ;  "  somebody  look  ! 
I  am  really  growing  excited." 

"  Five  minutes  by  the  clock,"  said  I. 

Jane  read  :  "  '  You  can  now  lift  the  cover  and  examine 
with  a  fairly  strong  white  light ;  one  that  is  all  that  you 
desire  for  the  purpose.'  " 

"  I  am  going  to  look,"  said  the  discourager  of  hesi- 
tancy, boldly. 

"  It  will  be  plumb  spoiled,  I  reckon,"  said  Jane — in 
the  sacred  privacy  of  home  we  allow  ourselves  the  use 
of 'the  dialect  of  the  country. 

It  was  a  thrilling  moment.  No  less  than  three  dis- 
tinct thrills  chased  each  other  down  my  spine,  as  I  lifted 
the  cover. 

"  Is  it  a  blooming  negative?  "  said  Jane,  with  a  slightly 
caustic  accent. 

"Is  it  fogged?"  said  Madonna. 

"Neither,"  I  answered  firmly,  "it  hasn't  started; 
developer  can't  be  strong  enough." 

Jane  suggested  that  perhaps  that  was  the  way  that 
white  light  acted — wiped  out  the  negative. 

We  increased  the  strength  of  the  solution  and  added 
a  trace  of  alkali.  The  developer  now  contained  a  solu- 
tion which  had  half  the  strength  of  the  normal  developer 
in  eikonogen  and  a  touch  of  alkali. 

We  hazarded  another  plate  in  a  solution  of  the  same 

strength.      Another  five  minutes  passed;    no  mark  on 
71 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


the  last  white  plate.  We  increased  the  strength  of  the 
developer,  putting  a  nearly  normal  developer  in  the  tray 
but  not  touching  the  first  tray.  In  two  or  three  minutes 
we  looked  at  our  later  speculation,  and  the  spectator 
uttered  an  exclamation  of  dismay;  it  was  palpably 
fogged.  Jane  was  so  considerate  that  she  did  not 
remind  me  that  the  original  experiment  was  with  iron 
developer ;  she  said  maybe  the  solution  was  too  strong. 
Then  we  examined  the  other  negative,  one  that  had 
been  over-exposed,  and  with  which,  therefore,  we  had 
not  dared  to  be  very  vigorous;  lo !  it  was  coming 
out,  delicately,  strongly,  without  a  hint  of  fog. 

"It  must  have  been  the  developer!"  said  Madonna, 
with  a  sigh  of  relief. 

We  finished  the  development  without  further  arrests 
to  our  hopes.  We  examined  the  negative  freely, 
painted  it  in  the  deep  shadow,  held  it  in  front  of  the 
kerosene  lamp  when  necessary,  and,  in  fine,  treated  it 
precisely  as  we  should  have  treated  it  by  the  usual 
non-actinic  photographic  light.  It  was  not  injured  in 
the  least  We  have  since  then  developed  many  white- 
light  negatives.  We  have  tried  pyro,  eikonogen,  hydro- 
quinone,  eiko-hydro,  and  pyrocatechin.  They  appear 
to  work  with  equal  facility  and  security.  The  kitchen 
interior,  on  a  former  page,  is  a  white-light  negative. 
It  was  taken  on  a  Carbutt  Eclipse  plate,  the  most 
sensitive  of  the  Carbutt  plates.  We  have  developed  in- 

72 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


stantaneous  exposures  and  orthochromatic  plates  by  the 
same  method  and  with  the  same  results.  With  at  least 
five  developers,  pyro,  eiko,  hydro,  pyrocatechin,  ferrous 
oxalate,  and  mixtures  of  the  different  developers  named, 
you  may  safely  trust  your  most  sensitive  plates,  to  our 
certain  knowledge.  We  habitually  work  by  an  orange 
light,  that  is  almost  equivalent  to  white  light,  and  quite 
its  equal  in  illuminating  power.* 

*  As  the  reader  may  be  interested  to  have  Dr.  Higgins's  word  for 
his  own  experiments,  and  may  not  have  the  "  Photographic  Times 
Almanac"  at  hand,  I  give  his  description  :  "  For  at  least  five  years, 
during  which  time  I  have  developed  up  to  even  thousands  of 
negatives,  I  have  pursued  the  course  here  given,  making  use  of 
neither  dark-room  nor  non-actinic  light  of  any  kind.  The  plates 
used  have  been  the  most  sensitive  attainable,  and  the  exposures 
both  instantaneous  and  timed,  and  to  have  a  foggy  plate  is  some- 
thing I  have  never  known.  Such  results  demand,  of  course,  that 
the  plate  be  uninjured  up  to  the  time  of  development,  and  to 
secure  this,  absolute  perfection  of  camera  and  plate-holders  is 
one  of  the  requisites.  This  each  individual  must  personally  see 
to  himself,  taking,  as  in  my  advice  to  the  '  Novitiate '  in  your  pre- 
ceding 'Annual,'  'nothing  for  granted.'  Next,  the  opening  of  the 
plate-boxes,  the  insertion  of  the  plates  into  the  holders  and  their 
removal  therefrom  for  immersion  in  the  developer,  must  be  in  dark- 
ness— total  darkness. 

' '  The  plate  now  having  seen  (the  word,  I  presume,  is  pardonable) 
no  light,  except  that  incident  upon  exposure  to  view  or  object,  can 
only  fog  from  having  been  so  sent  out  by  the  manufacturer — a  very 
rare  occurrence — or  from  the  development.  In  the  latter  case,  the 
cause  is  either  in  the  composition  of  the  developer,  or  from  the  light 
73 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

Our  next  developing  sensation  was  orthochromatic 
plates,  of  which  we  spoiled  about  a  box  before  we 
secured  any  freedom  of  action  with  them.  I  truly  wish 
I  knew  why  we  spoiled  so  many ;  but  I  don't,  any  more 
than  I  know  why  they  do  not  give  us  the  slightest 
trouble  now.  For  a  year  we  have  been  using  Carbutt's 
orthochromatic  plates,  and  we  have  no  more  bother  in 
manipulating  them  than  in  manipulating  their  sup- 
posed-to-be-hardier brothers.  I  think  our  first  make 

made  use  of  in  the  development.  Make  certain,  therefore,  ab  inifio, 
that  your  developer  is  all  that  can  be  asked  of  it,  and  then,  having 
filled  out  into  your  developing  tray  such  quantity  as  will  be  sufficient 
to  cover  your  plate  one-eighth  of  an  inch  deep,  neither  more  nor  less 
(for  this  there  are  good  reasons),  remove  your  plate  from  the  holder 
and  slide  it  into  the  developer,  giving  at  once  several  rocking 
motions  to  the  tray  to  insure  wetting  the  film  evenly  over  its  entire 
surface,  and  the  removal  of  air-bubbles,  and  cover  over  the  tray. 
So  far  in  absolute  darkness,  and  let  the  plate  remain  for  two  or 
three  minutes.  You  can  now  lift  the  cover  and  examine  with  a 
fairly  strong  white  light,  one  that  is  all  that  you  desire  for  the 
purpose.  Re-cover  for,  say,  five  minutes  or  more  (a  normal  ex- 
posure will  average  about  fifteen  minutes  for  ferrous  oxalate 
development),  pro  re  nata,  and  re-examine,  using  any  amount  of 
light,  until  satisfied  that  the  development  is  finished. 

"An  instantaneous  or  insufficient  exposure  will  require  consider- 
ably more  time  than  one  that  has  been  normal,  as  also  will  each 
succeeding  plate  in  the  same  developing  solution.  By  this  method 
your  negative  is  a  creation  of  your  own  personal  skill  and  judg- 
ment, and  not  of  chance  (i.e.,  as  far  as  the  matter  of  development 
goes),  for  it  is  of  'the  things  that  are  seen  and  not  of  the  unseen.'"' 
74 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


was  not  Carbutt's,  but  I  am  not  disposed  to  shift  the 
blame  of  our  failure  on  that  unremembered  plate  manu- 
facturer's shoulders.  I  am  inclined  to  think  we  over- 
exposed them,  and  then,  in  an  effort  to  secure  density, 
used  too  strong  a  solution  of  eikonogen,  and  so  secured 
only  red  fog.  Bed  fog  we  certainly  did  obtain  in  large 
quantities.  Orthochromatic  plates  may  not  do  all  that 
enthusiasts  claim  for  them,  but  they  certainly  give  ad- 
mirable half-tints.  They  are  particularly  satisfactory  in 
portraits,  and  they  do  good  work  in  interiors. 

We  tried  the  celluloid  films  ;  but  we  shall  stick  to 
glass.  The  celluloid  film  is  easily  developed,  but  it 
curls  and  must  be  smoothed  out  with  glycerine  (which 
is  a  small  matter,  but  a  nuisance  all  the  same),  and  we 
were  obliged  to  print  it  under  an  immaculate  plate  of 
glass  (it  takes  time  to  make  a  plate  of  glass  immacu- 
late), and  one  entire  box  of  films,  having  been  exposed 
to  the  damp,  broke  out  in  a  perfect  smallpox  of  pin- 
holes;  at  least  the  pinholes  came,  and  our  sentiments  of 
esteem  and  admiration  for  a  gifted  plate-maker,  cause 
us  to  ascribe  them  to  the  damp.  We  do  not  know  what 
damp,  or  how  or  when. 

The  beginner  is  always  advised  to  stick  to  one  make 
of  plates.  Does  he  ever  follow  the  advice?  We  didn't; 
we  wandered  through  the  advertising  lists  from  C  to  S. 
We  tried  the  Cramer  and  the  Carbutt,  the  Eagle  and 

the  Harvard  and   the  Seeds.     For  brilliancy,   we  have 
75 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

found  the  Carbutt  unequalled,  but  equally  superior  in 
half-tones  and  softness  are  the  Seed  plates.  For  a 
beginner,  I  should  unqualifiedly  praise  the  Carbutt  B. 
It  gives  more  leeway  for  the  photographer  to  make  a 
fool  of  himself  than  any  plate  in  the  market.  He  can 
hit  the  right  exposure  more  nearly  on  that  long-suffer- 
ing plate  than  on  any  slow  plate  I  know,  simply  be- 
cause two  or  three  seconds  seem  to  make  little  difference 
to  its  patience.  The  Seeds  Sens.  23  is  a  kindly  creat- 
ure, too,  gentle  and  tolerant.  But  out  of  the  gloom 
of  a  tragic  experience  we  beg  new  photographers  to 
avoid  all  the  rapid  plates,  Seeds  26,  Cramer's  50,  and 
the  Carbutt  Eclipse !  They  are  not  food  for  photo- 
graphic babes.  The  slow  plates  all  tend  to  increase 
contrast.  They  give  half-tints  more  generously,  they 
are  far  less  apt  to  go  astray  in  development ;  the  same 
skill  will  produce  a  better  picture  out  of  them  than  out 
of  the  others. 

As  for  developers,  we  have  found  that  it  pays  to  use 
the  formulae  of  the  emulsion  makers.  With  every  box 
of  plates  comes  a  printed  guide  to  the  best  use  of  the 
plates.  Quite  a  little  library  comes  with  the  Carbutt, 
Eagle,  or  Eastman  plates  and  paper.  The  Carbutt 
eiko-cum-hydro,  two-solution  developer  is  as  neat,  as 
satisfactory,  and  as  convenient  as  a  developer  can  be. 
Nevertheless  we  have  sometimes  fancied  advantages  in 
making  up  our  own  developers  from  the  drugs.  We 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


had  a  season  of  adversity  struggling  to  get  distilled 
water;  but  we  found  a  thriftless,  effectual,  Southern 
solution  of  the  riddle.  We  make  enough  developer  for 
the  negatives  on  band,  use  it  once  and  are  done  with 
it.  Indeed,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  unless  one  can 
have  the  most  unblemished  purity  of  materials  and  like- 
wise a  freshness  as  of  the  dawn,  it  is  better  to  use  as 
little  old  developer  as  possible.  The  first  trials  of  a  home- 
made developer  and  a  developer  from  the  manufacturer 
will  show  little  difference;  it  is  time  that  is  the  test. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  adventure  we  tried  the  time- 
honored  pyro.  It  was  slow,  it  was  dirty,  it  fogged  the 
plates  if  you  dared  to  push  it,  and  it  would  not  work  if 
it  was  not  pushed  !  During  the  reign  of  pyro  we  spent 
the  time  that  we  could  spare  from  the  studio  in  scrub- 
bing our  hands  ! 

Then  came  the  blessing  of  the  tyro,  hydroquinone. 
Ungrateful  should  we  be  were  we  to  refuse  it  praise, 
because  in  latei*  life,  when  we  could  manage  our  fiery 
steeds  of  developers  better,  we  found  that  it  lacked  the 
daintier  virtues  of  eikonogen.  For  the  beginner  hydro- 
quinone can  be  recommended  with  a  clear  conscience. 
It  will  enable  him  to  make  negatives  with  contrast  if 
any  mortal  developer  can.  Eikonogen  was  my  favor- 
ite, hydroquinone  Jane's,  until  the  happy  thought 
struck  us  to  follow  an  example  given  in  the  "Photo- 
graphic Annual"  by  Burton  (whose  book  on  printing 
77 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

has  been  our  constant  guide),  and  to  mix  the  two 
together,  thus  acquiring  the  density  and  contrast  of 
hydro  and  the  unsurpassed  detail  of  eikonogen. 

We  went  back — Jane  alone  can  tell  why,  it  was  none 
of  my  doing — to  pyro;  and  Jane  mixed  up  about  a 
gallon  of  the  stuff  and  developed  two  negatives.  They 
were  not  poor,  neither  were  they  particularly  good ; 
they  belonged  to  the  great  middle  class.  We  developed 
them  with  shaking  hearts,  for  they  were  on  the  edge  of 
a  fog  the  entire  time.  Jane  could  not  summon  courage 
to  venture  again  with  the  uncertain  pyro.  We  did, 
however,  try  a  few  by  white  light ;  being  negatives 
taken  for  experiment,  and  uninteresting  in  composition 
(in  order  that  we  might  not  regret  their  fate  if  they  were 
spoiled),  of  course  they  were  beautiful  specimens  of  their 
kind. 

The  new  developer,  pyrocatechin  or  brenz-catechin, 
in  some  respects  is  the  most  desirable  of  all.  It  works 
very  quickly,  and  the  negative  prints  «ven  better  than 
a  brown  pyro  negative.  It  seems  to  have  no  inclina- 
tion to  fog  or  stain  under  protracted  development,  and 
needs  very  little  alkali. 

But  we  soon  found  it  for  our  advantage  to  make  our 
choice  with  a  developer  and  stick  to  it,  finding  its  faults 
and  putting  up  with  them,  as  wives  say  of  their  hus- 
bands, the  best  one  may.  Eikonogen  and  pyrocatechin 

are  particularly  good  with  instantaneous  pictures. 

78 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


The  shutter  invariably  fascinates  the  beginner.  It 
fascinated  us.  In  our  simple-minded  way  we  proceeded 
to  fire  our  shutter  at  the  most  difficult  actions.  We 
stood  with  trusting  hearts  and  a  Waterbury  lens  that 
could  not  get  beyond  a  hand-gallop  at  best,  and  tried 
to  catch  the  boat  as  it  steamed  past  us  not  a  stone's 
throw  away.  The  result  was  such  as,  I  am  informed  by 
the  publishers,  "  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  reproduce  !  " 

Nothing  at  this  time  pleased  us  more  than  to  be  firing 
off  our  snap  shutter  at  every  passing  object.  It  was 
profitable  experience — for  the  dealers. 

"  I  have  about  decided,"  said  Jane,  as  she  pensively 
examined  a  blue  print  of  a  horse  with  six  spectral  legs, 
and  a  man  with  a  large  number  of  arms,  "  I  have  about 
decided  that  our  lens  isn't  rapid  enough  to  get  very 
near  to  the  objects  !  " 

I  agreed  cordially.  Unless  one  have  a  very  rapid  lens 
and  a  shutter  like  the  Iris  Diaphragm,  for  instance,  it  is 
wise  to  give  the  instantaneous  figures  a  good  long  start 
down  the  middle  distance. 

Instantaneous  development  has  excited  heated  discus- 
sions. Shall  we  develop  with  a  gentle  developer,  and 
slowly,  or  with  concentrated  developer?  We  tried 
both.  Both  have  yielded  fair  negatives. 

On  the  whole,  we  were  soon  content  to  try  a  slow 
development  for  our  instantieties.  We  have  most  com- 
fort out  of  those  that  we  have  started  in  a  weak  solu- 
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An  Adventure  in  Photography 


tion  of  alkali,  and  then  developed  slowly  in  two  solu- 
tions, one  of  eikonogen  and  one  of  alkali,  in  two  different 
travs,  shifting  our  negative  from  one  to  the  other ;  both 
being  weak  solutions,  warranted  not  to  strain  the  tender- 
est  constitution.  But  it  is  superfluous  and  bewilder- 
ing to  give  any  cast-iron  directions ;  every  negative, 
especially  every  under-exposed  negative,  as  the  instanti- 
ety  may  be  considered,  requires  individual  humoring  to 
draw  out  its  best.  You  have  the  two  problems,  the 
under-exposure,  which  calls  for  alkali,  and  the  sensitive 
plate,  which  fogs  at  any  excess  of  alkali.  And  somehow 
you  must  reconcile  the  two.  The  only  way  we  can  com- 
pass to  achieve  a  reconciliation,  is  to  give  the  alkali  in 
small  doses  and  very  gradually,  thereby  not  alarming 
the  sensitive  emulsion.  We  are  often  an  hour  coaxing 
a  negative  of  this  class ;  but  sometimes  one  receives 
one's  reward  in  the  excellent  result.  And,  owing  to  our 
developing  several  negatives  at  once,  the  time  does  not 
hang  heavily  on  our  hands.  On  the  whole,  therefore, 
we  prefer  the  mild,  persuasive  method  rather  than  the 
forcing  of  strong  developer. 

As  some  reader  may  have  the  curiosity  to  care  to 
know  our  development  formulae,  I  append  a  few.  The 
Seed  and  Carbutt  and  Cramer  formula  all  come  with  the 
plates,  and  can  be  obtained  by  any  purchaser.  They 
are  perfectly  trustworthy.  So  are  the  made-up  develop- 
ers sold  by  the  several  firms  named. 
80 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


A  good  ferrous  oxalate,  a  good  eiko,  and  a  good 
hydro  developer  are  given  below,  also  a  gem  of  a  pyro- 
catechin  developer.  I  cannot  reconcile  it  with  my  con- 
science to  help  any  young  amateur  with  nice,  white 
hands  and  a  trusting  heart,  to  the  using  of  pyro,  by 
providing  him  with  a  plausible-sounding  formula. 

A  TRUSTY  EIKONOGEN  DEVELOPER. 

No.   1. 

Sulphite  of  sodium  (crystals) 3  ounces. 

Hot  water 45  ounces. 

Thoroughly  dissolve,  then  add  : 

Eikonogen, 1  ounce. 

No.  2. 

Carbonate  sodium  crystals 4  ounces. 

(or  carbonate  of  potassium,  1£  ounce.) 
Water 15  ounces. 

To  develop  take  of 

No.  1 3  ounces. 

No.  2 1  ounce. 

If  more  contrast  is  required,  increase  the  amount  of  No.  1  ;  if  less, 
more  of  No.  2.  The  developer  can  be  used  repeatedly  *  by  adding 
each  time  a  little  of  each  of  fresh  solutions  Nos.  1  and  2,  according 
to  above  proportions.  For  developing  a  number  of  negatives  at 
once,  take  9  ounces  of  No.  1  ;  3  ounces  of  No.  2,  and  water  12 
ounces. 

With  this  developer  we  never  expect  anything  but  a 
good  negative.  It  works  better,  we  find,  with  the  potas- 

*  But  we  do  not  recommend  using  old  developer.  You  are  likely 
to  obtain  density  at  the  expense  of  the  purity  of  your  shadows.  And 
you  may  save  a  dime's  worth  of  developer  and  ruin  half  a  dozen  of  a 
dollar  and  a  quarter  plates. 

(6)  81 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


slum  than  with  the  sodium.  We  start  with  a  solution 
of  half  No.  1  solution  and  half  water,  and  gradually 
make  it  alkaline. 

A  GOOD  EIKONOUEN  DEVELOPER,. 
"CHAUTAUQUA"  DEVELOPER,  WITH  EIKONOOEN  IN  TWO  SOLUTIONS. 

A.— Eikonogen 128    gr. 

Crystallized  sulphite  of  sodium 1    ounce. 

Dissolve  in  warm  water 16    ounces. 

B.— Crystallized  carbonate  of  sodium 1£  ounce. 

Water 10    ounces. 

For  normal  exposures  take  3  parts  of  A  and  1  part  of  B.  To  pro- 
mote intensity  add  a  few  drops  of  a  10  per  cent,  solution  of  bromide 
of  potassium. 

"CHAUTAUQUA  "    DEVELOPER    WITH    EIKONOGEN.       (In  O11C  Solution,  for 

instantaneous  work.) 

Eikonogen 1 20    gr. 

Crystallized  sulphite  of  sodium H  ounce. 

Dissolve  in  8  ounces  of  hot  water  and  add  carbonate  of  potassium 
120  grains. 

For  use  dilute  with  an  equal  bulk  of  water,  and  add  a  few  drops 
of  a  10  per  cent,  solution  of  bromide  of  potassium. 

GEN.  BROWN'S  TREASURED  HYDROQUINONE  DEVELOPER. 

Xo.  1. — Sulphite  of  soda  (pure  crystals) 240  grains. 

Water 4  ounces. 

Dissolve,  and  add  hydroquinone 60  grains. 

No.  2.— Saturated  solution  of  carbonate  of  soda. 
Developer  :  No.  1,  two  drams  ;  No.  2,  one  dram  ;  water  to  make 
up  to  four  ounces. 

This  developer  was  the  joy  of  Jane  for  many  months. 
As  a  brilliant  developer  it  has  no  superior. 

82 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


"CHAUTAUQUA"    DEVELOPER,  WITH   HYDROQUINONE,  FOR  GELATINE 
DRY  PLATES. 

A. — Ilydroquinone 120    grains. 

Sulphite  of  sodium,  granulated 1    ounce. 

Meta-bisulphite  of  potassium 30    grains. 

Water 16    ounces. 

P>. — Carbonate  potassium  1^  ounce. 

Water 16   ounces. 

FERROUS-OXALATE    DEVELOPER    FOR  GELATINE    DRY    PLATES  (DR. 
EDER'S). 

A.— Neutral  oxalate  potassium 200  Gm. 

Distilled  water 800  C.c. 

Acidulate  with  oxalic  acid. 

B. — Proto  sulphate  of  iron,  crystals 100  Gm. 

Distilled  water 300  C.c. 

Sulphuric  acid 5  minims. 

C. — Bromide  of  potassium 10  Gm. 

Distilled  water 100  C.c. 

D. — Hyposulphite  of  sodium 2  Gm. 

Distilled  water 200  C.c. 

Mix  immediately  before  use  three  volumes  of  A  with  one  volume 
of  B,  and  develop.     Restrain  with  a  few  drops  of  C. 

For  over-exposure  take  less  of  the  iron  solution  and  add  gradually 
in  small  portions  as  required.     To  give  the  negative  body,  use  C. 

PYRO-CATECHIN  DEVELOPER. 
SOLUTION  1. 

Water 3  oz.  3  drams. 

Pyro-catechin 15  grains. 

SOLUTION  2. 

Carbonate  of  potassium 1 J  ounce. 

Water 16  ounces. 

This  simplest  of  developers  works  like  a  charm. 

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An  Adventure  in  Photography 


PARAMIDOPHENOL  DEVELOPER,  OR,  THE  GIANT. 

Water 1,000  C.c. 

Sodium  sulphite 120  grams. 

Potassium  carbonate 40  grams. 

Paramidophenol 4  grams. 

BURTON'S  MIXED  EIKO  AND  HYDRO  DEVELOPER. 

Hydroquinone 4  parts. 

Sulphite  of  soda 12  parts. 

A  saturated  solution  of  eikonogen  in  10  per  cent. 

sulphite  of  soda 200  parts. 

Carbonate  of  soda  (in  crystals)  25  parts. 

Water  up  to 1000  parts. 

DR.  HIGGINS'S  TOOL,  OR,  GEN.  BROWN'S  IMPROVED  FERROUS  OXALATE. 

Ferrous  sulphate 8  ounces. 

Water  (hot) 16  ounces. 

Dissolve  and  filter  ;  when  cool,  add 

Tartaric  acid 5  drams. 

The  commercial  "  copperas,"  or  "  green  vitriol  "  even,  may  be  used 
if  we  select  clear  crystals.  It  may  be  prepared  by  the  gallon,  if 
necessary,  and  if  kept  in  the  light  and  exposed  occasionally  to  the  sun- 
shine, it  will  always  remain  a  clear,  bright-green,  limpid  liquid. 

Thus  prepared,  and  added  to  the  neutral  oxalate  stock  solution  as 
usually  directed  (though  by  cautious  additions  much  more  iron  may 
be  added  without  a  precipitate),  it  will  give  you  a  developer  infinitely 
better  suited  to  the  gelatine  plate  than  the  alkaline  pyro  in  any  form, 
and  only  equalled,  according  to  my  competitive  experiments,  by  a 
properly  prepared  hydroquinone  developer,  which  it  far  excels  in 
rapidity. 

But,  as  I  have  said,  our  favorite  among  the  older 
developers  is  a  "  mixtery,"  as  the  old  negro  cooks  would 
say,  of  eiko  and  hydro,  prepared  according  to  Carbutt's 

Eiko-cum-hydro  formula,  which  goes  with  all  his  plates. 

84 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


We  use,  also,  his  fixing  bath,  which  is  almost  identical 
with  the  bath  given  below,  as  the  reader  may  see  for 
himself  by  comparing  them. 

English  Measures  -Troy  Weight.  Metric  Weights  and  Measures. 

1  quart  Water 1  litre. 

4  ounces  Sulphite  of  sodium  crystals 120  grams. 

After  being  dissolved  add 

£  ounce  Sulphuric  acid 15  c.c.m. 

3  ounces  Chrome  alum,  powdered 90  grams.  . 

Dissolve  and  pour  this  into  a  solution  of 

2  pounds  Hyposulphite  of  soda 1  kilo. 

3  quarts  Water 3  litre. 

This  bath  combines  the  following  advantages  :  it  remains  clear 
after  frequent  use  :  it  does  not  discolor  the  negatives,  and  forms  no 
precipitate  upon  them.  It  also  hardens  the  gelatine  to  such  a  degree 
that  the  negatives  can  be  washed  in  warm  water,  provided  they  have 
been  left  in  the  bath  a  sufficient  time.  The  plate  should  be  allowed 
to  remain  in  the  bath  five  to  ten  minutes  after  the  bromide  of  silver 
appears  to  have  been  dissolved.  The  permanency  of  the  negative 
and  freedom  from  stain,  as  well  as  the  hardening  of  the  film,  depends 
upon  this.  Wooden  boxes,  with  grooves  to  hold  a  number  of  plates, 
will  be  found  both  convenient  and  economical  for  fixing.  When  the 
bath  becomes  weakened  by  constant  use,  it  should  be  replaced  by  a 
fresh  solution. 

0 

CARBUTT'S  NEW  ACID  FIXING  AND  CLEARING  BATH. 

Hyposulphite  of  sodium   16  ounces. 

Sulphite  of  sodium  crystals 2  ounces. 

Sulphuric  acid 1  fluid  dram. 

Chrome  alum 1  ounce. 

Warm  water 64  ounces. 

Dissolve  the  hyposulphite  of  sodium  in  48  ounces  of  water,  the  sul- 
phite of  sodium  in  6  ounces  of  water;  mix  the  sulphuric  acid  with  2 
ounces  of  water,  and  pour  slowly  into  the  sulphite  sodium  solution, 
and  add  to  the  hyposulphite;  then  dissolve  the  chrome  alum  in  8 

85 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


ounces  of  water,  and  add  to  the  bulk  of  solution,  and  the  bath  is 
ready.  This  fixing  bath  will  not  discolor  until  after  long  usage,  and 
both  clears  up  the  shadows  of  the  negative  and  hardens  the  film  at 
the  same  time. 

Let  remain  two  or  three  minutes  after  negative  is  cleared  of  all 
appearance  of  silver  bromide.  Then  wash  in  running  water  for  not 
less  than  half  an  hour,  to  free  from  any  trace  of  hypo  solution.  Swab 
the  surface  with  a  wad  of  cotton,  rinse,  and  place  in  rack  to  dry  spon- 
taneously. 

And  here  are  three  good  reducing  formulae  : 

BELITSKI'S  ACID  FERRI-OXALATE  REDUCER  FOR  GELATINE  PLATES. 

Water 7    ounces. 

Potassium  ferric  oxaiate 2£  drams. 

Crystallized  neutral  sulphite  of  sodium 2    drams. 

Powdered  oxalic  acid,  from 30  to  45    gr. 

Hyposulphite  of  soda 1|  ounce. 

The  solution  must  be  made  in  this  order,  filtered,  and  be  kept  in 
tightly  closed  bottles;  and  as  under  the  influence  of  light  the  ferric 
salt  is  reduced  to  ferrous,  the  preparation  must  be  kept  in  subdued 
light. 

REDUCER  FOR  GELATINE  DRY  PLATE  NEGATIVES  (FARMER'S). 

Sat.  sol.  of  ferricyanide  of  potassium 1  part. 

Hyposulphite  of  sodium  solution,  1  in  10 10  parts. 

REDUCER  FOR  GELATINE  DRY  PLATES. 

Perchloride  of  iron 30  gr. 

Citric  acid GO  gr. 

Water 1  pint, 

We  do  not  believe  in  intensifying,  but  if  you  must 
intensify  this  formula  will  hurt  your  negative  as  little 
as  any. 

86 


The  Negative,  its  Mark 


INTEXSIFIER  FOR  GELATINE  DRY  PLATES  WITH  MERCURIC  CHLORIDE 
AND  HYDROQUINONE  (DR.  MALLMAN). 

After  whitening  in  the  saturated  solution  of  mercuric  chloride,  as 
usual,  treat  with  an  old  hydroquinone  developer  ;  the  result  is  a 
bluish-black  intensification,  which  is  applicable  to  positives  as  well 
as  negatives. 

It  is  a  ticklish  matter  cleansing  a  negative  from 
stains,  but  here  is  a  formula  as  safe  as  any  : 

CLEANING  BATHS.— Solutions  used  to  cleanse  and  clean  a  negative 
or  positive  of  any  kind  from  stains  of  development.  The  following 
have  been  found  useful  with  different  brands  of  plates:  alum,  1  oz. ; 
water,  15  oz. ;  citric  acid,  J  oz. ;  water,  36  oz. ;  chrome  alum,  |  oz. ; 
citric  acid,  i  oz.  Used  after  development.  Wash  off  and  immerse 
for  three  to  five  minutes.  Wash  and  clear  (fix) :  alum,  1  oz. ;  citric 
acid,  1  oz. ;  protosulphate  of  iron,  8  oz. ;  water,  20  oz, ;  should  be 
freshly  mixed.  Saturated  solution  of  alum,  20  oz. ;  hydrochloric 
acid  (commercial),  1  oz.  Immerse  the  negative  after  clearing  (fixing), 
having  previously  washed  it  for  two  or  three  minutes  under  the  tap. 
Wash  well  after  removal  from  alum  and  acid.  This  bath  will  act 
very  kindly  with  dry  negatives  that  have  become  discolored. 

Finally,  when  all  is  over,  and  you  gaze  on  the  wreck 
of  your  hopes,  in  gelatine,  here  is  a  recipe  for  cleaning 
off  your  glass! 

CLEANING  OLD  NEGATIVES.— Dissolve  several  ounces  of  common 
washing  soda  in  two  gallons  of  hot  water.  In  this  put  the  plates  and 
leave  them  for  twenty-four  hours.  At  the  end  of  this  time  many  of 
the  films  will  have  disappeared.  Those  still  adhering  can  be  easily 
removed  by  using  an  old  tooth-brush.  After  they  are  denuded  of 
the  old  films  put  them  in  hot  water,  to  which  add  a  small  quantity 
of  hydrochloric  acid;  let  them  soak  for  an  hour,  and  transfer  them  to 
pure  hot  water  for  another  hour,  after  which  they  will  be  clean,  and 
can  be  placed  on  edge  to  drain  and  dry. 
87 


CHAPTER  V 

PRINTING  I  WITH  A  TRUTHFUL  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  MIS- 
DEMEANORS OF  DIFFERENT  PAPERS ;  ALSO,  OUR 
EDUCATION  IN  BLUE  PAPER,  AND  OUR  WRESTLE 
WITH  THE  ARISTOTYPE. 

THE  pundits  have  a  continually  recurring  phrase, 
"Don't  wobble!  Stick  to  one  thing;  one  plate,  one 
developer,  one  paper !  "  But,  speaking  now  as  one  of 
the  ignorant,  how,  0  wise  ones,  are  we  to  know  which 
is  the  best  plate,  the  best  developer,  the  best  paper,  un- 
less we  do  wobble?  There  are  people  who  would  make 
photographic  choice  as  irrevocable  as  marriage,  without 
permitting  the  privilege  of  courtship.  I  confess  we 
rambled  too  much.  We  were  messing  with  half  a  dozen 
kinds  of  paper  at  the  same  time.  I  would  suggest  a 
compromise.  Let  the  amateur,  as  a  concession  to  his 
light  nature,  be  allowed  a  paper  a  season. 

We  would  recommend  him  to  begin  on  blue  paper. 
It  requires  no  fussy  toning  and  fixing;  it  prints  out  in 
the  frame,  not  like  a  ghostlv  platinotype,  but  distinctly  ; 
he  does  not  risk  everything  on  a  single  act  of  judgment, 
as  in  bromide  printing,  but  may  watch  the  process 
throughout;  and  lastly,  the  washing  is  much  simpler 


Printing 

and  easier  than  the  washing  of  most  other  kinds  of 
paper.  Its  one  grievous  fault  is  that  it  deteriorates 
with  age. 

Our  first  paper  was  an  aged  sample  that  had  lost 
courage  waiting  for  a  customer.  It  had  no  longer  any 
white  tints,  a  faded  light  blue  was  its  utmost  effort  at 
brightness.  We  supposed  that  was  the  way  the  paper 
always  acted.  We  wondered  that  the  formulae  could 
talk  of  white  lights.  But  one  day  there  came  a  paper 
fresh  from  the  shop,  and  our  eyes  were  dazzled  by 
ravishing  china-blue  tints  and  pearly  white. 

How  we  struggled  to  get  more  of  that  paper !  The 
"  Queen,"  I  think,  was  its  name,  and  it  came  from  Phil- 
adelphia, a  city  that  I  have  always  loved,  because  of  its 
solid  virtues,  its  magnificent  charities,  its  well -descended 
people,  and  its  adorable  things  to  eat !  Again  and 
again  did  we  beg  our  dealers  to  send  us  more  of  the 
"Queen;"  instead,  we  received  all  kinds  of  paper  with 
fine  names,  but  never  the  "  Queen."  We  often  pondered 
on  the  problem.  Had  the  manufacturer  failed?  Was 
his  paper  too  good  to  sell,  and  had  he  been  obliged  to 
leave  the  business?  Was  he  crushed  by  jealous  rivals? 
Had  the  dealers  been  persuaded  to  boycott  his  superior 
wares  ? 

We  never  found  out ;  it  remains  a  darksome  riddle, 
like  "  Who  was  the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask?  "  We  only 
know  we  never  found  the  paper's  like  again.  But  we 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


supplied  its  place  in  a  less  expensive  way.  Mr.  Beach, 
in  the  "Amateur  Photographer,"  recommended  the 
manufacture  of  blue  paper.  We  followed  his  advice, 
and  found  that  blue  paper  is  a  very  easy  thing  to 
make,  and  that  the  fresh  article  is  infinitely  superior 
to  the  stale.  Where  one  can  get  it  fresh  daily  from 
the  manufacturer  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  taket  he 
trouble  of  preparing  it,  but  where  one  must  take  the 
chances  of  its  age,  it  is  well  worth  the  effort.  We  give 
the  formula  that  we  use  at  the  end  of  this  chapter.  We 
apply  the  iron  salts  with  a  camel's-hair  brush,  flat  and 
broad,  brushing  the  paper  lengthwise  and  then  at  right 
angles,  leaving  as  few  brush  marks  as  we  conveniently 
may — though,  truth  to  tell,  we  never  could  find  a  trace 
of  them  in  the  printed  page;  the  only  mistake  that  was 
always  brutally  plain,  was  skipping  the  least  portion  of 
the  paper  in  the  brushing.  We  print  until  the  shadows 
begin  to  look  bronzed,  then  we  take  the  paper  out  of  the 
printing-frame  and  place  it  face  downward  in  a  wash- 
ing-box. We  let  it  stay  some  ten  or  fifteen  minutes, 
then  remove  it  to  a  fresh  bath,  still  face  downward. 
From  this  stage  there  is  only  a  step  to  the  last  baths, 
where  it  can  show  its  face  and  float  about  in  company 
with  its  mates.  We  like  to  wash  blue  prints  an  hour  or 
more.  We  fancy  that  thorough  washing  cannot  be  done 
in  less  time,  and  that  we  thus  get  a  brilliant  print. 
A  brilliant  print  we  certainly  are  able  to  get  from 


A    COUNTRY    ROAD. 
(White    light    negative.      See    p.    72.) 


Printing 

moderate  negatives.  Very  strong  negatives  are  likely 
to  be  harsh  in  blue  prints,  and  very  weak  negatives  will 
be  flat.  The  blue  print  does  not  give  as  much  detail  as 
the  albumen  or  the  gelatine-chloride  papers,  but  it  gives 
as  much  as  any  mat  surface,  unless  it  be  possibly  "the 
platinotype.  It  is  urged  against  the  blue  print  that  it 
has  a  disagreeable,  sunken  aspect.  But  has  it,  with 
a  fresh  paper?  We  trow  not  However,  there  is  a 
remedy  in  rubbing  the  blue  print  with  encaustic  paste. 
I  append  our  formula.  The  only  danger  is  that  unless 
one  is  careful  the  paper  may  give  a  sudden  lurch  and 
crumple  under  the  hand.  This  happens  when  the  paste 
is  rubbed  on  too  lavishly,  or  when  it  dries  unevenly. 
When  it  happens,  the  only  cure  is  to  soak  the  print  in 
water,  dry  it,  and  start  afresh. 

We  were  not  satisfied  with  our  blue  prints,  of  course. 
We  plunged  recklessly  into  albumen  paper.  We  made 
a  little  fuming-box  with  tapes  strung  across,  and  a  saucer 
in  the  bottom  for  the  ammonia,  and  we  bought  some 
ready-made  toning  fluid,  which  toned  with  maddening 
slowness,  so  that  we  could  only  get  a  streaked,  reddish- 
brown,  do  what  we  would,  for  our  color.  The  paper 
was  too  old,  we  afterwards  discovered. 

After  experimenting  with  divers  toning  baths,  we 
have  concluded  that  it  does  not  matter  so  much  whether 
one  choose  bicarbonate  of  soda,  tungstate  of  soda,  or 

something  else;  the  great  point  is  to  wash  off  the  free 
91 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

• 

nitrate  of  silver  after  the  prints  come  out  of  the  frame, 
and  before  they  are  toned,  and  to  tone  only  one  at  a 
time.  Of  course,  the  books  tell  you  that  the  skilful 
toning  operator  can  tone  twenty ;  and  I  have  seen  my 
friends,  Mr.  Hostetler  and  Mr.  Hubinger,  of  Davenport, 
Iowa,  toning  what  seemed  to  me  an  unlimited  quantity 
with  all  the  ease  in  the  world ;  but  they  are  skilful 
operators,  we  are  not,  and  we  prefer  to  take  more  time 
and  not  throw  away  so  many  prints — the  floor  of  our 
studio,  of  a  printing  afternoon,  is  disgraceful  enough  to 
view  as  it  is.  A  dozen  is  none  too  many  to  wash  cr  to 
fix  at  a  time,  but  we  think  that  we  have  witnessed  a 
distinct  advance  to  unity  of  tone  in  our  formerly  allo- 
chroic  prints  since  we  gave  them  individual  treatment. 
We  fix  twice;  the  first  time  in  a  moderately  strong 
bath,  the  next  and  last  time  in  a  very  weak  one.  How 
strong  and  how  weak  the  inquiring  photographer  may 
see  by  our  formulae. 

Temperature  plays  its  part  in  printing  as  well  as 
developing,,  and  a  change  of  temperature  between  the 
developer  and  the  fixing  bath,  or  a  change  between  the 
toning  bath  and  the  fixing  bath,  will  have  almost 
equally  bad  effects.  Of  course  you  may  escape ;  there 
are  inscrutable  decrees  of  nature  that  protect  folly,  and 
fall  with  a  dull,  sickening  thump  on  wiser  heads ;  they 
may  see  you  through  in  safety  !  And  you  may  play 

whist  and,  out  of  sheer  idiotic  greed,  lead  for  the  first 
92 


Printing 

lead  the  sneak  that  is  the  only  chance  to  save  the  odd 
trick!  I  don't  know  why  these  trials  to  faith  are  per- 
mitted ;  I  only  know  that  they  are.  But  you  need  not 
fancy  that  they  will  go  on  ;  by  chance  you  have  hit 
upon  some  loophole  in  photographic  law  and  crawled 
through,  without  knowing;  but  you  cannot  count  on 
hitting  it,  again  ! 

A  second  fixing  bath  we  have  come  to  regard  as  essen- 
tial to  the  security  and  permanence  of  the  prints.  We 
may  be  wrong,  but  as  a  second  bath  is  so  little  trouble, 
and  may  be  so  helpful,  why  not  use  it  ? 

Our  method  in  printing  has  brought  us  good  results, 
and  it  may  be  acceptable  to  some  amateur ;  while,  if  it 
shall  not  seem  so  good  as  his  own,  he  will  have  the 
pleasant  sensation  of  superiority,  and  no  harm  will  be 
done  in  either  case. 

After  printing — we  print  according  to  the  good  old 
rule,  Print  until  all  detail  is  out  strong  and  bold  and 
sharp,  in  the  high  lights,  and  the  shadows  are  bronzed 
— we  remove  the  print  from  the  frame  and  place  it 
in  a  washing-box  filled  with  tepid  water  (in  summer  the 
water  is  tepid  enough  of  itself,  without  heating),  and 
there  we  let  the  print  remain  for  five  or  ten  minutes. 
We  have  several  prints  in  at  a  time,  and  shift  them  in 
order  to  give  each  the  same  chance  to  wash  and  be  clean. 

Now,  we  pour  off  the  water,  and  let  them  soak  in 
clean  water  a  few  minutes  more.  This  is  repeated  once 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


or  twice  more,  making  in  all,  four  or  five  changes  of 
water  before  they  go  into  washing-box  No.  2,  which  is 
filled  with  a  weak  acid  solution  (to  one  gallon  of  water 
one  ounce  of  acetic  acid,  or,  if  you  are  bold  and  daring, 
to  one  trayful  of  water  a  few  drops  of  the  acid),  where 
they  are  completely  immersed,  one  by  one.  Keep  them 
constantly  in  motion  in  this  bath.  They  stay  about  ten 
minutes,  according  to  the  best  authorities.  Then  we 
wash  them  again  in  several  changes  of  water.  It  is 
thought  desirable  to  be  sure  that  all  the  acid  is  washed 
away  before  placing  them  into  the  toning  bath  ;  but, 
myself,  I  cannot  see  why,  in  the  case  where  acetic  acid  is 
used  in  the  toning  bath,  there  should  be  any  danger  in 
an  additional  minute  whiff  of  it  coming  with  the  prints. 
However,  Jane  is  faithful  in  following  directions;  she  is 
more,  she  is  obsequious !  And  we  wash  the  acid  off,  and 
Jane  sniffs  vigilantly  until  the  last  odor  has  departed. 

The  toning  bath  now  comes  on  to  the  stage,  in  a  clean 
porcelain  tray.  Wide  is  the  range  of  toning  fluids.  To 
understand  how  wide,  one  must  be  a  little  wise  in  the 
mysteries  of  the  process.  Why  do  we  wash,  and  why 
do  we  tone,  and  why  do  we  fix?  I  have  no  objection 
to  answering,  because  I  can  qucte  some  one  else,  and 
shall  not  have  to  rummage  among  a  rather  shop-worn 
scientific  stock,  left  over  from  my  schooldays. 

We  wash  to  get  rid  of  the  nitrate  of  silver  in  the  silver 

sensitized  albumen  paper.     We  try  to  get  rid  of  it,  be- 
94 


Printing 

cause  we  don't  want  it  to  take  up  the  valuable  time  of 
our  gold.  As  to  the  part  the  gold  plays  in  the  business, 
here  it  is,  clearly  defined: 

"A  solution  of  chloride  of  gold.  What  can  this  do? 
Gold  is  what  might  be  called  an  ascetic  metal;  it  likes 
to  live  alone.  In  other  words,  it  is  easily  reduced  from 
its  salts  to  the  metallic  state.  So  when  this  sheet  of 
paper,  covered  all  over  with  silver  salts,  is  brought  into 
a  solution  of  chloride  of  gold,  the  silver  having  a  great 
attraction  naturally  for  chlorine  and  the  gold  parting 
willingly  with  its  chlorine,  it  is  no  more  than  can  be 
expected  to  find  the  chlorine  leaving  the  gold  and  unit- 
ing with  the  silver,  forming  of  course  chloride  of  silver ; 
the  dark  sub-chloride,  when  the  silver  has  been  reduced 
to  the  sub-chloride  by  the  action  of  light,  and  the  white 
chloride,  when  the  silver  is  unaltered;  and  then,  the 
gold,  having  lost  that  which  held  it  in  solution,  has 
nothing  to  do  but  come  down  as  a  precipitate  of  metal- 
lic gold,  and  so  metallic  gold  is  deposited  upon  the 
picture."  * 

We  use  a  bath  rather  weak  in  gold — at  least,  that  is 
our  principle ;  a  liberal  hand  sometimes  gets  beyond 
our  rule — preferring  a  slow  and  gradual  toning.  We 
tone  by  a  weak  white  light,  and  we  keep  the  print  face 
up  in  the  toning  bath  and  well  covered  with  the  fluid. 

The  moment  to  take  away  the  prints  is  the  riddle  of 

*  H.  M.  Mclntyre,  quoted  in  "Wilson's  Photographies,"  p.  202. 
95 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

the  toning  process.  If  you  take  them  away  before 
enough  gold  has  been  deposited  you.  will  have  a  raw, 
streaked  picture,  unfit  even  for  the  reckless  hospitality 
of  an  amateur  photographic  album  ;  a  picture,  moreover, 
doomed  to  an  early  fading.  If,  on  the  contrary,  one 
tone  too  long,  the  prints  will  assume  a  sunken,  ashen 
tint,  and  are  then  called  "degraded."  Most  of  our 
first  season's  printing  was  "degraded."  Yet  while  it 
is  so  important  to  rescue  the  little  dears  before  they 
become  degraded,  but  not  before  they  have  taken  all  the 
gold  they  can  absorb  this  side  the  degraded  point,  it  is 
no  more  possible  to  direct  the  student  infallibly  to  that 
moment  of  fate  than  it  is  to  tell  a  cook  just  when  she  is 
to  take  the  risen  dough  out  of  the  bowl.  In  both  cases 
the  operator  must  have  a  trained  eye,  and  the  amateur 
can  only  train  his  eye  by  spoiling  a  few — or  a  great 
many — prints. 

There  are  all  shades  and  several  colors  of  toning 
effects.  You  always  have  to  allow  for  the  bleaching  of 
the  hypo,  and  therefore  to  tone  several  shades  deeper  in 
tint  than  you  wish  the  eventual  result  to  be.  It  is  a 
useful  plan  to  test  the  toning  bath  for  any  subtle  thief 
of  an  acid  reaction  that  may  have  crept  in.  Litmus 
paper  is  always  a  good  creature  in  a  studio,  and  you  can 
get  enough  to  last  a  year,  for  a  quarter. 

Some  printers  put  the  prints  that  have  been  toned,  in 
an  acid  bath  (three  to  five  grammes  of  pure  muriatic 
96 


Printing 

acid  to  a  litre  of  water)  before  putting  them  into  the 
hypo ;  others  merely  wash  them  a  single  time  and  put 
them  in  the  hypo.  We  have  always  thought  that  we 
had  enough  of  a  circus  in  our  printing  process  without 
the  muriatic  acid  act ;  nor  are  we  aware  that  we  have 
been  punished  for  slighting  it. 

At  first,  to  obtain  different  colors  in  toning  (for 
naturally  we  hankered  to  get  every  tint  of  which  we 
had  ever  heard  or  read),  we  used  to  follow  Burton's  very 
complete  and  intelligible  directions.  If  we  wanted  a 
''warm  tone,"  we  soaked  the  print  in  salt  and  water;  if 
we  desired  a  purple,  in  carbonate  of  soda  and  water. 
But  we  soon  agreed  with  our  author  that  certain  brands 
will  give  naturally  one  tint  and  certain  other  brands  the 
other  tint.  In  our  efforts  to  get  the  purple  tints  which 
at  one  time  we  craved  on  ready  sensitized  paper,  we 
only  succeeded  in  getting  a  mongrel  bluish- brown, 
which  Mr.  Burton  aptly  characterizes  as  a  "color  quite 
indescribable  but  certainly  far  from  agreeable."  And 
we  came  to  his  sensible  conclusion  that  such  a  brand 
was  "  not  suitable  for  toning,  other  than  to  a  brown." 
We  also  picked  up  a  belief  that  certain  toning  baths 
should  be  used  with  certain  toning  papers;  for  instance, 
that  we  were  not  required  to  use  a  purple  toning  bath 
with  a  paper  of  brown  tendencies. 

The  temperature  of  the  toning  bath  should  be  barely 

tepid.     In  warm  weather  the  water  is  likely  to  attend  to 
97 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

that,  itself.  Some  of  the  wise  advise  a  temperature  of 
ninety  degrees  for  all  the  solutions;  but  Burton  never 
allows  his  thermometer  to  show  more  than  seventy 
degrees.  I  think  we  must  have  had  about  everything 
in  the  way  of  temperature,  and  certainly  sometimes  we 
were  warmer  than  seventy-five,  and  still  were  not  in- 
jured. 

The  washed  prints  are  now  fixed  for  twenty  to  twenty- 
five  minutes  in  hypo.  If  hypo  be  not  alkaline — and  it 
has  the  usual  perversity  of  photographic  materials  and 
loves  to  outwit  the  painstaking  amateur  by  a  sly  acid 
turn — the  prints  may  fade;  therefore  it  is  important  to 
make  the  bath  alkaline.  Ammonia  is  simple,  and  has  the 
advantage  of  telling  when  it  is  present  in  sufficient 
quantities.  As  soon  as  the  operator  perceives  the  odor 
he  can  stop  adding  alkali. 

We  like  to  give  each  print  as  it  is  placed  in  the  fixing 
bath  a  good  wash  of  the  hypo.  We  put  it  in  and  then 
press  it  under,  face  downward.  As  soon  as  all  the 
prints  are  in,  we  take  the  lowest  print  out  and  put  it  on 
top,  and  so  on  through  the  company.  Burton  advises 
repeating  this  four  times. 

He  advises  the  secondary  bath  of  weak  hypo,  which 
we  came  to  find  valuable ;  and  he  would  not  use  a 
stronger  proportion  of  hypo  than  two  ounces  to  a  pint 
of  water.  He  would  have  a  large  quantity  of  the  bath. 
He  has  his  ample  bath  from  principle;  we  had  it  be- 


Printing 

cause  it  makes  up  more  quickly  and  easily  with:  the 
larger  measures. 

After  the  fixing  comes  the  washing.  Newton  has  "a 
simple  and  effectual  method  of  cleaning  the  prints  of 
hyposulphite  of  soda  by  employing  the  acetate  or  nitrate 
of  lead."  He  says  that  it  does  not  impair  the  perma- 
nence of  the  prints.  Myself,  I  cannot  help  feeling  that 
for  the  amateur  it  should  not  much  condemn  a  method 
if  it  do  "  impair  the  permanence  of  prints,"  for  so  few 
of  our  prints  are  really  demanding  indestructibility, 
and  so  many  would  better  quietly  slip  out  of  ex- 
istence. Where  is  the  sister  or  brother  of  the  guild 
that  has  not,  during  his  callow  stage  of  satisfaction, 
given  his  kindred  and  friends  prints  that  they  are  now 
displaying  heedlessly  as  his  or  her  work,  while  the  giver 
wishes  them  in  the  fire? 

The  proper  way  to  wash  prints,  when  running  water  is 
not  obtainable,  is  to  keep  them  in  motion,  and  shift  from 
one  tray  to  another,  "using  a  clothes  wringer  frequently 
between  operations."*  This  is  to  be  kept  up  for  "three 
or  four  hours  "  f — or  until  the  operator  faints  at  the 
trays!  The  final  act  is  to  place  each  print  "on  a  sheet 
of  clean  glass,  first,  face  downwards,  then  face  upwards, 
for  a  few  minutes,  while  a  stream  of  water  plays  on 
it.";}:  Warm  water  is  best  to  use. 

*  "  Wilson's  Photographies,"  p.  208. 

t  Burton,  "  Photographic  Printing,"  p.  54.  }  Ibid. 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

This,  I  repeat,  is  the  way  we  doubtless  ought  to  wash 
our  prints;  the  simple,  actual,  unpretentious  way  that 
we  do  wash  them  is  to  put  them  in  a  huge  washing-box 
that  contains  about  four  gallons  of  water,  distributing 
the  prints  about  as  well  as  we  can,  so  that  they  may  be 
separated  ;  and  leave  them  to  fight  it  out  with  the  liypo 
for  a  varying  period,  which  depends  on  our  other  avoca- 
tions. When  we  think  of  it,  in  half  an  hour,  we  go  and 
hoist  the  huge  box  and  pour  out  the  gallons  of  water, 
and  fill  the  box  with  fresh  water  and  sozzle  the  prints 
about  in  it  for  a  while.  Another  period  of  placid 
elimination,  generally  devoted  on  our  part  to  the  evening 
meal.  We  then  pay  a  second  visit  to  the  prints,  some- 
times two,  or,  in  particularly  conscientious  seasons,  three 
or  even  four,  and  we  generally — unless  it  is  too  late  or 
we  are  too  tired — wash  the  prints  off  on  glass,  in  the 
manner  recommended.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  our 
method  will  be  popular  with  amateurs  in  the  future,  as 
I  suspect  some  variation  of  it  has  been  popular  in  the 
past.  We  have  some  four-year-olds  trained  in  this  way, 
and  they  show  no  signs  of  deterioration. 

At  one  time  we  had  a  slight  experience  with  plain 
paper.  I  salted  and  silvered  some  Saxe  paper  and 
printed  on  it.  Imagine  my  surprise  when  I  obtained 
some  very  pretty  prints !  Tn  consequence,  we  are  going 
to  try  plain  paper  in  a  rather  more  exhaustive  fashion. 
We  had  so  little  difficulty — that  is,  the  poorer  photog- 
100 


Printing 


rapher  of  the  firm  had,  for  she  worked  alone,  because 
Jane  was  too  busy  with  art  embroidery  to  accompany 
and  protect  the  experiment — in  making  tolerable  prints 
from  home-made  paper,  that  it  occurs  to  us  that  the 
case  of  plain  paper  and  blue  paper  may  be  analogous; 
namely,  that  freshly  made  paper  may  make  all  the  dif- 
ference in  the  world  in  the  results.  It  is  hard  to  tell 
the  best  of  my  plain  paper  prints  from  a  platinotype, 
except  for  the  purplish  tone.  Very  rich  purple  tones 
can  be  obtained,  as  well  as  many  beautiful  browns. 
The  toning  and  fixing  are  no  more  difficult  than  albu- 
men paper  toning  or  fixing ;  indeed,  are  almost  the 
same  processes.  And  the  prints  themselves  have  a 
delicacy,  a  clearness,  and  at  the  same  time  a  rich  depth 
that  are  most  attractive. 

Plain  paper  is  salted  in  a  very  quick  and  easy  way ; 
there  is  little  chance  to  make  mistakes.  It  is  silvered 
as  easily  as  blue  paper  is  sensitized. 

One  day  an  awful  thing  happened  to  a  whole  batch  of 
our  prints.  They  were  taking  the  treatment  like  larnbs; 
they  had  shown  rich  red-brown  in  the  toning  bath. 
The  whites  were  crystal  clear,  or,  rather,  they  were  of 
the  translucent  porcelain  clearness  so  precious  to  the 
photographer.  We  immersed  them  in  hypo,  with  a 
tranquil  mind.  Jane  took  out  one  and  said:  "Well, 
this  is  pleasant !  " 

Then  I  knew  there  had  been  a  catastrophe ;  I  knew  it 
101 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


as  distinctly  as  when  sbe  held  out  the  print  before  ray 
gaze. 

"Every  one!"  said  she,  in  a  tragic  tone. 

Our  beautiful  prints  were  mottled  all  over,  and  pre- 
sented an  extraordinary  burnished  appearance  among 
the  mottles. 

"What  should  you  call  it?"  says  Jane. 

"I  should  call  it  the  measles,  complicated  by  metallic 
spots,"  I  answered.  There  was  nothing  to  do  with  the 
prints  but  send  them  after  a  long  line  of  crushed  hopes. 
They  went  by  the  Black  river  road,  like  the  others,  and 
we  read  Burton  and  Wilson  all  the  evening. 

Another  time  the  mottled  effect  appeared  the  instant 
the  prints  left  the  frame,  which  was  considerate,  sparing 
us  the  trouble  of  toning. 

As  measles  are  caused  for  the  most  part  by  the 
paper,  the  nearest  remedy  is  to  reproach  the  dealer  and 
discard  the  paper.  Sometimes,  however,  the  hypo  bath 
(when  acid)  is  the  mischief-maker,  in  which  case  the 
remedy  is  apparent.  Mealy  prints  are  more  dispiriting 
than  measly  prints,  because  in  the  latter  trouble  one 
can  always  find  some  one  else  to  blame,  but  mealiness 
belongs  generally  to  the  printer.  It  comes  from  print- 
ing on  very  weak  negatives,  from  too  little  silver  in  the 
paper  (when  one  makes  plain  paper  prints  this  is 
common),  from  too  much  gold  in  the  toning  bath,  or 

from  too  little,  from  using  a  toning  bath  too  fresh,  or 
102 


Printing 

from  washing  the  prints  too  long.  Never  was  there  a 
trade  that  needed  to  have  for  its  motto  Josiah  Allen's 
Wife's  great  rule  of  conduct:  "Bemegum!  Whatever 
you  do,  be  megurn  !  "  more  or  oftener  than  photography. 
Wash  enough,  but  don't  wash  too  much.  Tone  enough, 
but  don't  tone  too  much.  Have  the  toning  bath  fresh, 
but  not  too  fresh.  Make  the  hypo  bath  strong,  but 
not  too  strong.  "  Be  bold  !  be  bold !  and  evermore  be 
bold !  "  But  be  not  too  bold !  On  either  side  stands 
ruin,  grim  and  sure !  Considering  all  the  things  that 
can  happen  to  an  albumen  print,  the  marvel  is  so  many 
tolerable  ones  appear  all  the  time.  Yellow  patches  and 
stains  are  another  terror.  They  come  from  the  careless 
manipulation  of  the  paper,  or  from  the  least  trace  of 
hypo  on  the  fingers.  The  remedy  is,  Be  Clean !  They 
have  not  bothered  us  much — not  that  we  are  especially 
neat,  but  that  our  hypo  arrangements  are  kept  apart 
from  the  other  things,  and  we  wash  our  hands  every 
time  we  go  near  the  contaminating  influence.  Yellow- 
ing of  the  paper  may  happen  to  the  most  careful  printer, 
but  it  happens  persistently  to  the  careless,  who  are  too 
lazy  to  make  their  hypo  bath  up  fresh  each  time.  It 
happens  also  as  a  gentle  call  to  time  from  any  acid  that 
gets  into  the  hypo  bath.  Warm  weather  will  cause  it, 
or  the  keeping  of  paper  too  long. 

Some  of  our  prints  used  to  go  through  all  the  proc- 
esses  with   every  promise  of   a  fair   future,   and   then 
103 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


emerge  from  the  fixing  bath  looking  well  enough  by 
reflected  light,  but  curdled  and  spotty  and  queer-look- 
ing by  transmitted  light. 

Many  a  print  did  we  throw  aside  as  useless  because 
of  this — a  needless  waste  of  good  prints  that  might  have 
been  saved  by  merely  fixing  them  longer.  Spotted 
prints  are  not  fixed  enough ;  "  Prints,"  says  Wilson, 
"should  be  left  in  the  solution  until  you  can  see 
nothing  but  the  fibre  of  the  paper  in  the  white  parts 
of  the  print  when  held  up  to  the  light  If  this  is  not 
done,  they  are  apt  to  fade  or  turn  yellow  in  a  short 
time." 

Sometimes  the  prints  turn  perverse  and  refuse  to  tone 
at  all ;  ours  were  greatly  addicted  to  this  wicked  habit ; 
but  the  best  remedy  that  we  know  is  to  "  warm  them." 

Probably  the  most  exasperating,  most  varied,  and 
most  frequent  evil  habit  of  the  albumen  paper  is  its 
tendency  to  blister. 

And  the  thicker  and  richer  the  albumen  coating, 
the  greater  the  probability  of  blisters ;  because  blisters 
come  from  the  defective  preparation  of  the  albumen 
coats. 

Nothing  makes  a  print  look  more  loathsome  than 
blisters.  The  uneven  action  of  the  albumen  may  be 
caused  by  change  of  temperature  in  the  different  solu- 
tions. That  is  a  common  explanation,  and  mv  worst 

experience  with  blisters  bears  it  out.     I  was  using  fresh 
104 


Printing 

paper,  obtained  from  a  photographer  in  town.  It  acted 
admirably  in  the  toning  bath,  but  the  instant  that  it 
entered  the  hypo  it  blistered  completely.  There  was 
not  the  space  of  a  large  pin-head  free.  I  put  one  print 
into  strong  salt  and  water  and  for  the  next  print  I 
warmed  the  bath;  both  prints  came  out  perfectly  free 
from  blisters. 

Sixteen  ounces  of  salt  to  one  gallon  of  water  is 
Wilson's  formula. 

Dr.  Schnaus  declares  that  an  absolutely  reliable  pre- 
ventative  is  to  lay  the  sheet  of  paper,  before  printing, 
on  blotting  paper  and  to  wash  off  the  back  with  a  wet 
sponge.  The  paper  is  then  dried  in  the  air,  as  drying 
by  heat  causes  red  spots. 

We  keep  solutions  at  nearly  the  same  temperature, 
and  have  had  almost  no  trouble  from  blisters. 

Arnold,  in  "  The  American  Annual  of  Photography  " 
for  1892,  gives  a  simple  but  excellent  formula,  adding 
one  ounce  of  alcohol  to  every  ten  ounces  of  toning  bath. 

And  here  are  a  few  maxims  from  the  same  book, 
every  one  of  which  we  know  to  be  good. 

A  FEW  REMEDIES  AGAINST  BLISTERING  OF  ALBUMEN  PAPER. 

Do  not  dry  the  paper  by  excessive  heat. 
Avoid  acidity  in  solutions. 

Moisten  the  print  before  washing  with  a  sponge  saturated  in 
alcohol. 

Immerse  the  print  before  fixing  in  weak  alum  solution. 
Add  a  trace  of  aqua  ammonia  to  the  fixing  bath. 
105 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

Another,  only  a  little  less  annoying,  trick  of  albumen 
paper  is  to  contract  or  to  stretch  in  the  printing  frame. 
It  invariably  chooses  the  time  for  this  caper  when  we 
are  printing  portraits,  because  it  knows  well  that  a  land- 
scape may  be  broadened  or  lengthened  and  no  great 
harm  done,  but  if  a  face  be  flattened  or  elongated  a 
hairsbreadth,  the  model  of  the  picture  will  never  forgive 
it.  A  photographic  "  wrinkle  "  to  avoid  such  distortion 
is  to  moisten  the  sheet,  pin  it  to  a  block,  and  dry  the 
middle  of  the  sheet  first,  driving  the  wrinkles  into  the 
edges.  Our  only  device  to  amend  our  mistakes  was  to 
turn  the  paper  about  in  such  a  way  that  round  faces 
got  the  benefit  of  being  lengthened,  while  we  widened 
hatchet  faces  by  placing  the  paper  the  opposite  direction. 

Perhaps,  all  things  taken  into  account,  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  amateur  seeks  ever  a  new  printing  process. 
We  read  in  Burton  of  the  merits  of  paper  coated  with 
gelatine  instead  of  albumen;  glossy,  like  albumen,  but 
more  permanent,  not  so  likely  to  be  ruined  by  over- 
toning,  doing  as  well  by  a  thin  negative  as  the  bromide, 
yet  giving  a  good  picture  from  a  "  plucky  "  negative. 
"We  tried  the  "  aristotype,"  the  "chloride  of  silver," 
the  "gelatino-chloride,"  the  "emulsion"  paper,  all  of 
which,  are  as  much  alike  as  Betsy,  Elizabeth,  Bessy  and 
Bess,  who  all  went  together  to  seek  a  bird's  nest,  and 
a  bird's  nest  found  with  two  eggs  in  it,  and  each  took 
one,  yet  left  one  egg  in  it !  The  first  paper  that  we 
106 


Printing 

received  was  called — but,  no,  I  shall  not  give  its  name, 
the  manufacturer  may  have  repented  and  be  leading  a 
better  life,  making  a  paper  that  does  not  cause  profanity 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  wide  land;  and  I 
would  not  recall  the  irrevocable  past  At  the  time,  I 
must  say,  however,  he  didn't  seem  likely  to  repent ;  he 
had,  in  fact,  what  I  should  call  a  "cockiness"  of  spirit. 
He  said  in  his  circular  that  his  brand  of  paper  gave  tones 
(•'  a  range  of  tones  ")  unapproached  by  any  brand  on  the 
market  (which  was  a  tarradiddle,  but  no  matter) ;  he  said 
that  its  softness,  its  richness,  could  hardly  be  described  ; 
he  said  that  his  combined  fixing  and  toning  bath  was  a 
marvel  of  rapidity  (which  it  was  not\  and  he  said  that 
possibly  the  paper  might  curl  slightly  before  washing, 
but  it  only  needed  to  be  soaked  and  managed  with  a 
little  care.  That  was  what  he  said  ;  this  is  what  it  did  ! 

It  went  into  a  spasm  the  instant  that  it  left  the  print- 
ing frame,  curling  up  into  the  very  tightest  of  spirals. 
It  crawled  and  squirmed  and  twisted  and  wriggled  and 
tried  to  roll  itself  up  in  the  washing  water,  like  a  live 
creature !  One  needed  three  hands  to  manage  it  at  all, 
two  hands  to  hold  the — the  beast,  and  one  to  rock  the 
tray  ! 

After  we  managed,  between  us,  to  wash  it  without  its 
tearing  itself  to  pieces,  it  developed  a  new  freak ;  of  a 
sudden,  it  became  the  most  fragile  and  slippery  paper  in 

the  world,  and  as  it  still  curled  as  playfully  as  at  first, 
107 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


whenever  we  restrained  it  there  would  be  a  tear  in 
the  sheet.  Before  the  bath  was  over  it  was  rent  in 
half  a  dozen  places,  but  just  as  sprightly  as  ever.  Oh, 
but  we  had  a  lively  time!  It  went  on  curling  and 
capering  and  rolling  and  rending  until  the  end  of  the 
chapter,  and  to  make  the  story  short,  we  obtained 
exactly  one  decent  print  out  of  the  package.  And  Jane 
declared,  give  her  the  honest  albumen  paper  that  knew 
when  it  had  enough  to  drink  and  lay  down  quietly, 
instead  of  this  insatiable  rioter! 

We  succeeded  better  with  a  second  package — by  dint 
of  extreme  care ;  but  we  lost  almost  half  our  paper. 

However,  we  were  consoled  for  everything  by  the 
very  next  brand  (the  "  Peerless  ")  that  we  tried,  and  the 
"Omega"  was  equally  kind. 

The  best  brands  of  the  gelatine  paper  have  their 
faults,  but  they  are  not  unmanageable  faults,  and  the 
manipulation  is  decidedly  simpler  than  with  albumen. 

Its  worst  tendency  is  the  delicacy  of  the  gelatine  coat- 
ing, which  requires  careful  handling  until  it  is  hardened 
in  the  alum  bath  ;  after  that,  it  seems  to  be  as  tough  as 
albumen,  and  may  be  handled  freely.  The  washing  is  a 
degree  less  than  the  washing  of  albumen  prints. 

There   have  been  a  number  of   objections  made   to 

combining  the  toning  and  fixing  operations,  the  point 

of  them  being  that  one  has  no  security  that  a  print  is 

fixed  simply  because  it  is  toned,  and  that  to   remove 

108 


Printing 

the  print  is  to  risk  its  becoming  yellow  or  mealy,  or 
likely  to  fade  away.  We  have  tried  both  the  combined 
and  the  single  baths,  and  confess  our  preference  for  the 
combined  bath,  because  we  can  judge  better  as  to  the 
color  of  the  print  when  we  do  not  have  to  allow  for 
reduction  in  hypo.  We  make  our  peace  with  our  cau- 
tion by  afterwards  fixing  the  print  in  a  very  weak  hypo 
bath.  There  is  very  little  change  of  color,  this  way. 
And  I  am  gratified  to  learn  that  so  high  an  authority  as 
Burton  approves  of  a  combined  bath,  taking  the  same 
precaution.  Aristotypes  darken  perceptibly  after  they 
are  dried  ;  and  allowance  must  be  made  for  this  fact. 

The  gelatine  papers  give  a  stronger  print  from  a  weak 
negative  than  the  albumen ;  but  they  do  not  offset  this 
advantage  by  giving  too  hard  a  print  from  a  strong 
negative.  A  hard  negative  will  make  a  hard  print  in 
albumen,  and  it  will  make  a  little  harder  print  in  gela- 
tine, but  a  good  plucky  negative  does  not  give  a  hard 
print  on  either  paper. 

The  question  of  intensifying  a  negative  by  printing 
has  always  interested  us.  There  is  a  very  good  reason  ; 
we  have  had  so  many  thin  negatives.  We  have  tried 
printing  under  tissue  paper;  for  we  could,  without  the 
books,  see  that  if  we  could  contrive  to  print  more  slowly, 
contrast  would  be  greater.  Tissue  paper  gives  a  more 
vigorous  picture,  indeed,  supplies  all  the  vigor  one  is 

likely  to  ask ;  but  tissue  paper — at  least  our  tissue  paper 
109 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

. — is  an  impressionist  after  Dr.  Emerson's  own  heart; 
and  it  returns  to  us,  in  the  place  of  our  thin,  sharply  cut 
picture,  abounding  in  the  finest  kind  of  detail,  a  fuzzy, 
out-of-focus  landscape,  as  broad  as  broad  can  be! 

For  obtaining  contrast  by  printing,  I  know  of  nothing 
better  than  printing  under  yellow  glass.  The  detail  is 
preserved  and  contrast  secured  at  the  same  time,  for 
which  we  may  thank  the  non-actinic  nature  of  yellow,  I 
presume.  Printing  in  the  shade  is,  I  hardly  need  to  say, 
much  slower  than  printing  in  the  bright  sunlight;  and 
therefore  is  "indicated"  for  thin  negatives.  But  we 
have  found  that  printing  in  the  shade,  on  a  bright  sunny 
day,  is  better  for  the  great  bulk  of  negatives;  indeed,  for 
all  except  the  harsh  negatives.  Even  in  their  case  it  is 
a  question  whether  it  may  not  be  better  to  sun  the  paper 
before  printing,  and  to  print  in  the  shade.  Exposing 
the  paper  for  a  few  seconds  only,  has  a  magic  effect  on 
the  harshness  of  some  negatives. 

Speaking  for  ourselves,  as  two  humble  adventurers 
who  do  not  profess  to  be  guides,  we  have  found  it  less 
troublesome  to  print  according  to  paper,  putting  our 
thin  negatives  on  bromide  paper,  and  our  harsh  nega- 
tives on  platinotype.  We  do  not,  however,  have  many 
hard  negatives,  because  we  reduce  them.  Thin  negatives 
print  incomparably  on  the  bromide  papers;  and  it  really 
seems  a  waste  of  time  to  bribe  other  papers  that  do  not 

want  them,  to  entertain  them,  with  yellow  glass  and  shade. 
110 


Printing 

Vignetting,  "printing  in,"  masking,  and  the  like,  as 
well  as  combination  printing,  I  defer  to  the  chapter 
entitled  Tricks,  for  thejr  are  to  our  mind  all  more  or 
less  artifices  with  which  the  photographer  makes  out 
a  different  story  from  the  sun's  real  tale. 

FORMULAE. 

To  accommodate,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  those  who 
always  skip  formulae  and  those  who  seek  formulae  with 
an  unslakable  thirst,  I  have  collected,  in  this  retired  spot, 
a  few  of  the  least  risky. 

1 — To  SENSITIZE  BLUE  PAPER  FOR  CYANOTYPES. 

A. — Citrate  of  iron  and  ammonium 1|  ounce. 

Water 8   ounces. 

]}. — Ferricyanide  of  potassium 1^  ounce. 

Water 8   ounces. 

Mix  equal  parts  immediately  before  use  and  float  the  paper,  Rives 
plain,  upon  it  for  three  minutes  ;  hang  up  to  dry. 

We  find  better  results  when  we  brush  the  solution 
on  the  paper  instead  of  floating. 

2 — BURTON'S  PLAIN  PAPER  EMULSIONS. 
No.  1. 

A. — Nitrate  of  silver 400  grains. 

Water 4  ounces. 

B.— Gelatine  (soft) 80  grains. 

Chloride  of  ammonium 80  grains. 

Citric  acid 120  grains. 

Water 8  ounces. 

Ill 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


No.  2. 
A.— Nitrate  of  silver 400  grains. 

Water 4  ounces. 

B. — Gelatine  (soft) 80  grains. 

Chloride  of  ammonium 80  grains. 

Citric  acid 120  grains. 

Carbonate  of  soda  (dry) 45  grains. 

Water ...     8  ounces. 

No.  3. 
A.— Nitrate  of  silver 400  grains. 

Water 4  ounces. 

B.— Gelatine  (soft) 80  grains. 

Chloride  of  ammonium 80  grains. 

Citric  acid 60  grains. 

Carbonate  of  soda  (dry) 80  grains. 

Water ....    .     8  ounces. 

In  my  hands  the  first  formula  gives  an  emulsion  suitable  for  pre- 
paring paper  to  be  used  for  printing  from  dense  negatives,  the  second 
from  medium  negatives,  and  the  third  from  thin  negatives. 

Mr.  Burton  says  that  the  "best  way  of  coating  is  certainly  by 
floating,  allowing  three  to  four  minutes,  but  the  quantity  of  the  emul- 
sion needed  is  considerable.  It  is  possible  to  get  an  even  coating 
by  brushing  with  cotton  wool  in  the  following  way  :  the  paper  is  laid 
on  a  sheet  of  glass,  or  a  clean  board,  and  is  thoroughly  and  evenly 
damped  with  the  solution  by  brushing  over  the  surface  several  times 
in  directions  at  right  angles.  It  is  put  on  one  side  for  ten  minutes 
or  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  to  get  surface  dry,  when  the  operation  is 
repeated.  ...  I  have  never  been  able  to  get  an  even  enough 
coating  by  brushing  only  once.  The  temperature  of  the  operating- 
room  should  be  about  seventy  degrees  Fahrenheit,  or  else  the  emul- 
sion should  be  warmed.  The  paper  is  best  dried  pretty  quickly  be- 
fore a  fire,  or  near  a  stove,  after  it  has  lain  for  about  four  or  five 
minutes  to  get  surface  dry." 

The  longer  the  paper  is  printed  the  richer  the  tones,  therefore 
strong  negatives  are  usually  preferred.  But  Mr.  Burton,  by  his 
separate  treatment  for  thin  and  dense  negatives,  gives  good  tones  for 
all. 

Mr.  Burton  prints  on  the  platinum  bath,  Clark's  Process  : 
112 


Printing 


CLARK'S  PLATINUM  BATH. 

Dissolve  sixty  grains  of  chloro-platinite  of  potassium  in  two 
ounces  of  distilled  water  (if  you  cannot  get  distilled  water,  and  we 
have  found  a  great  many  things  easier  to  get  than  it,  take  boiled 
water  cooled,  it  does  apparently  just  as  well).  This  makes  the 
stock  solution.  For  the  toning  bath  take 

Stock  solution 1  dram. 

Nitric  acid 3  drops. 

Distilled  water 3  ounces. 

But  the  prints  may  be  toned  by  gold.     Here  are  some 
good  baths: 

Gold  Toning. — Tungstate  of  soda 20  grains. 

Phosphate  of  soda 20  grains. 

Boiling  water 3  ounces. 

Dissolve,  and  add 

Chloride  of  gold 1  grain. 

Allow  to  cool,  and  add 

Water 5  ounces. 

Chloride  of  gold 15  grains. 

Water 7-J  ounces. 

Two  drams  of  this  solution,  neutralized  with  a  pinch  of  chalk, 
are  added  to  ten  ounces  of  boiling  water,  and  filtered  into  a  quart 
bottle  in  which  two  drams  of  acetate  of  soda  have  been  placed. 
When  the  soda  is  dissolved,  the  solution  is  made  up  to  twenty 
ounces.  The  bath  should  be  allowed  to  stand  for  some  hours  before 
it  is  used. 

Generally,  plain  prints  are  washed  in  several  changes 
of  water  before  immersing  them  in  the  toning  bath  ;  but 
when  he  uses  the  platinum  bath  Mr.  Burton  puts  paper 
coated  with  the  first  two  emulsions  directly  into  the 

toning  bath,     Paper  coated  with  the  third  emulsion  he 
8  113 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


washes  off  in  a  weak  solution  of  citric  acid  to  neutralize 
the  alkaline  character. 

The  color  in  the  printing  frames  should  be  a  rich  brown  with 
either  of  the  first  two  formulas,  a  deep  purple  with  the  third. 

The  printing  is  very  quick,  whichever  of  the  formulas  be  used, 
but  with  No.  3  it  is  extraordinarily  so.  Indeed,  paper  coated  with 
emulsion  prepared  by  this  formula  is,  I  think,  more  sensitive  than 
that  by  any  other  printing-out  process  that  I  know  of.  It  is  so 
sensitive  that  it  is  quite  necessary  to  take  extra  precautions  in 
working  it. 

The  paper  keeps  better  than  the  general  plain  paper, 
and  no  mention  is  made  of  fuming.  I  know  that  I  did 
not  fume,  and  the  prints  took  a  rich  purple  very 
quickly.  He  makes  the  solutions  in  the  following 
manner. 

You  will  observe  that  each  emulsion  consists  of  two 
solutions. 

"  The  two  solutions  are  heated  to  a  temperature  of  one  hundred 
and  ten  degrees  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  degrees  Fahrenheit. 
The  temperature  should  not  be  greater  than  one  hundred  and  twenty 
degrees,  as  there  is  a  great  chance  that  some  of  the  insoluble  silver 
salts  produced  will  be  thrown  down  in  the  granular  form.  A  is  then 
added  slowly  to  B,  with  much  stirring.  The  emulsion  is  filtered 
through  a  double  thickness  of  cambric,  and  is  then  immediately 
ready  for  use.  If  it  is  wished  to  keep  the  emulsion  for  any  length 
of  time,  ten  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  in  each  ounce  of  which  a  few  grains 
of  thymol  have  been  dissolved,  should  be  added  to  the  solution." 

The  platinum  bath  has  what  Mr.  Burton  calls  "a 
good  dose  of  salt,"  which  I  took  to  mean  about  half  a 
teaspoonfuL 

It  is  a  beautiful  formula,  and  works   like  a  charm. 
114 


Printing 


SOME   GOOD   OLD   STAND-BYS    FOR   ALBUMEN   PAPER. 

E.  L.  WILSON'S  BATH. 

Water  32  fluid  ounces. 

Acetate  sodium 60  grains. 

Chloride  sodium 60  grains. 

Chloride  gold 4  grains. 

Nitrate  uranium 4  grains. 

Neutralize  the  gold  and  uranium,  previously  dissolved  in  a  little 
water,  with  sufficient  bicarbonate  soda.  Before  using,  add  gold  to 
renew  the  bath,  as  necessary. 

LIESEGANG'S  COMBINED  TONING  BATH. 

Water  32  ounces. 

Hyposulphite  of  soda 8  ounces. 

Sulpho-cyanide  of  ammonium 1  ounce.   ' 

Acetate  of  soda |  ounce. 

Saturated  solution  of  alum 2  ounces. 

and 

Water 8  ounces. 

Chloride  of  gold 15  grains. 

Chloride  of  ammonium 30  grains. 

Pour  the  gold  solution  into  the  hypo  solution,  then  add  thirty 
grains  of  freshly  prepared  chloride  of  silver. 

THE  CHAUTAUQUA  TONING  BATH. 

Dissolve  fifteen  grains  of  chloride  of  gold  and  sodium  in  fifteen 
ounces  of  water.  Take  of  this  solution  three  ounces,  pour  it  in  the 
toning  dish,  test  for  acidity  with  litmus  paper,  and  neutralize  with 
bicarbonate  of  soda,  and  add  thirty  grains  of  acetate  of  soda  and 
thirty  ounces  of  water.  Prepare  the  solution  an  hour  before 
using  it. 

If  warm  tones  are  wanted,  add  a  little  acetic  acid  to  the  last  wash- 
ing water. 

For  this  bath  the  sensitizing  silver  should  be  neutral,  for  which 
purpose  a  small  portion  of  carbonate  of  silver  should  be  kept  in  the 
silver  stock  bottle. 

115 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


TONING  BATH  FOR  READY  SENSITIZED  PAPER. 

A.— Water 1  litre. 

Chloride  of  gold 1  grain. 

B.— Water 1  litre. 

Borax 10  grams. 

Tungstate  of  soda 40  grams. 

DR.  LIESEGANG'S  TONING  BATH. —  With  Tungstate  of  Soda. 

Boiling  water 1  liti-e. 

Tungstate  of  soda 20  grams. 

Chloride  of  gold 1  gram. 

Can  be  used  immediately  after  cooling. 

DR.  LIESEGANG'S  TONING  BATH. — With  Phosphate  of  Soda. 

Water 1  litre. 

Phosphate  of  soda 15  grams. 

Chloride  of  gold 1  gram. 

DR.  LIESEGANG'S  TONING  BATH. — With  Carbonate  of  Lime  (Chalk). 

Water 1  litre. 

Chloride  of  gold 1  gram. 

Carbonate  of  soda 15  grams. 

Chalk 5  grams. 

After  twelve  hours  the  bath  is  perfectly  clear  and  colorless,  when 
it  is  ready  for  use.  It  is  very  durable,  and  gives  fine  tones. 

A  good  hypo  solution  has  been  given,  as  a  one-to-five 
solution  assured  of  its  alkaline  character  by  ammonia, 
but  here  is  a  bicarbonate  of  soda  fixing  bath  that  has 
served  us  well. 

HEARN'S  FIXING  BATH  FOR  ALBUMEN  PRINTS. 

Water 8    ounces. 

Sat.  solution  of  hypo 1    ounce. 

Bicarbonate  of  soda  in  sat.  solution 1J  ounce. 

116 


Printing 

The  second  hypo  bath  is  only  a  one  to  fifteen  or  to 
ten  solution. 

A  FULL  FORMULA  FOR  ARISTOTYPES  FOR  THOSE  WHO  PREFER 
SEPARATE  TONING. 

The  prints  are  first  washed  in  one  or  two  changes  of  water,  and 
then  toned  in  a  mixture  of  the  following  toning  baths: 

BATH  No.  I. 

Distilled  water 35    ounces. 

Double  crystallized  acetate  of  soda H  ounce. 

Chloride  of  gold  solution  (strength,  1  grain  to  l£ 

ounces  of  water) 3    ounce. 

BATH  No.  2. 

Distilled  water 35    ounces. 

Sulpho-cyanide  of  ammonium f  ounce. 

Chloride  of  gold  solution  (strength,  1  grain  to  1£ 

ounces  of  water) 3    ounces. 

The  solutions  are  to  be  kept  separate,  and  when  ready  for  use  may 
be  mixed  by  adding  2£  ounces  of  No.  2  to  7  ounces  of  No.  1.  The 
bath  as  mixed  will  keep  clear,  and  as  it  slows  in  toning,  more  of  the 
gold  solution  can  be  added. 

To  judge  of  the  right  tone,  the  prints  should  be  examined  by  look- 
ing through  them,  or  by  transmitted  light.  When  it  is  obtained  they 
are  removed  to  fresh  water,  washed  a  minute  or  two,  and  placed  in  a 
fixing  bath  of 

Water , 1  ounce. 

Hyposulphite  soda 5  ounces. 

The  fixing  is  completed  in  one  or  two  minutes,  then  the  prints 
should  be  washed  for  an  hour  in  frequent  changes  of  water,  and 
finally  place  them  in  an  alum  bath  for  about  three  minutes,  made  as 
follows: 

Water 35    ounces. 

Powdered  alum 1}  ounce. 

They  should  now  be  washed  in  six  or  eight  changes  of  water  until 
117 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


the  milky  color  in  the  water  disappears.     They  may  then  be  washed 
for  an  hour  or  so,  or  left  in  the  water  over  night. 

LIESEGANG'S  COMBINED  TONING  BATH. 

Water 32    ounces. 

Hyposulphite  of  sodium 8    ounces. 

Sulphocyanate  of  ammonium 1    ounce. 

Acetate  of  sodium i  ounce. 

Saturated  solution  of  alum 2    ounces. 

and 

Water 8  ounces. 

Chloride  of  gold 15  gr. 

Chloride  of  ammonium 30  gr. 

Pour  the  gold  solution  into  the  hypo  solution,  then  add  thirty 
grains  of  freshly  prepared  chloride  of  silver. 

A  very  popular  and  pretty  process  is  the  Kallitype 
process,  of  which  we  give  a  formula  below ;  we  have 
printed  orj  the  paper,  but  never  have  made  it  ourselves. 
The  printing  is  easily  done,  and  the  results  pleasing, 
although  to  the  writer's  eye  they  have  a  dull,  semi- 
sunken  appearance,  as  if  they  needed  a  tonic. 

THE  KALLITYPE. 

Coat  stout  but  fine-grained  paper  with  a  solution  of 

Sodium  ferric-oxalate 6    drams. 

Water 2J-  ounces. 

Dry  quickly  without  the  application  of  heat,  and  print  till  the 
deeper  shadow  portions  of  the  picture  become  visible.  On  removal 
of  the  print  from  the  frame  immerse  into  a  1£  per  cent,  solution  of 
nitrate  of  silver  acidified  slightly  with  citric  acid,  when  the  picture 
will  develop  brilliantly  and  with  all  detail. 

Finally  wash  in  pure  water.     A  yellow  tinge  may  be  washed  away 
with  a  five  per  cent,  solution  of  oxalic  acid. 
118 


Printing 

Blue  paper  can  be  toned ;  and  brown  and  a  particu- 
larly faded,  uneven  black  tone  can  be  obtained  if  one 
think  it  worth  the  trouble ;  we  do  not. 

A  pleasing  adaptation  of  the  blue  print  process  is 
made  with  very  little  trouble  ;  it  is  to  sensitize  albumen 
paper  on  the  glossy  side,  print  and  wash  as  usual.  The 
finished  prints  have  more  detail  than  in  blue  print  and 
a  gloss  from  the  albumen  that  is  grateful  to  certain 

tastes. 

ENCAUSTIC  PASTE,  1. 

White  wax 1  ounce. 

Spirits  of  turpentine 1  ounce. 

ENCAUSTIC  PASTE,  2. 

Pure  wax 500  parts. 

Gum  elemi 10  parts. 

Benzole 200  parts. 

Essence  of  lavender 300  parts. 

Oil  of  spike 15  parts. 

Finally  we  submit  Newton's  method  of  hypo-elimina- 
tion by  salts  of  lead,  either  the  acetate  or  the  nitrate  of 
lead.  "  Make,"  he  says,  "  a  stock  solution  of  the  salts 
of  lead  before-mentioned,  by  dissolving  two  ounces " 
(of  either)  "in  sixteen  ounces  of  water.  If  nitrate  of 
lead  be  used,  the  water  would  better  be  hot,  as  it 
dissolves  very  slowlv  in  cold  water.  When  the  prints 
are  fixed,  wash  them  off  in  two  or  three  changes  of 
water,  and  place  them  in  water  containing  two  ounces  of 
stock  solution  to  every  four  quarts  of  water;  they  need 
119 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


remain  in  the  lead  water  only  from  five  to  ten  minutes, 
and  then  they  should  again  be  washed  in  a  few  changes 
of  water,  and  the  work  is  completed,  and  by  applying 
the  most  delicate  tests  no  trace  of  hypo  will  be  found. 
When  the  lead  solution  is  put  into  the  water  to  receive 
the  prints  there  will  be  produced  a  trace  of  carbonate  of 
lead,  which  will  give  the  water  a  milky  appearance.  If 
the  prints  are  put  into  it  in  this  condition,  the  albumen 
surface  will  be  injured  by  the  carbonate  adhering  to  it. 
The  carbonate  should  therefore  be  dissolved  before  the 
prints  are  put  into  it,  which  is  done  by  adding  a  little 
acetic  acid,  just  sufficient  to  make  the  water  clear. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PRINTING  BY  DEVELOPMENT;  HOW  WE  CONQUERED 
THE  BRILLIANT  BROMIDE,  AND  HOW  THE  PEACEFUL 
PLATINOTYPE  CONQUERED  US. 

THE  first  bromide  that  we  ever  saw  was  one  of  our 
own  making.  It  was  pretty  poor.  The  shadows  were 
clogged,  and  the  sky  had  a  thunder  storm  not  down  on 
the  negative;  and  the  edges  were  yellowed,  and  several 
distinct  black  thumb  seals  showed  where  the  enthu- 
siastic but  heedless  operator  (that  was  I ;  Jane  is  seldom 
enthusiastic  and  never  heedless)  had  shifted  the  position 
of  the  paper  in  the  tray. 

The  bromide  process  reminds  me  of  the  heroine  in  the 
"  Bab  Ballads  "  who  was  "  far  from  plain."  So  is  it,  very 
far! 

Our  first  developments  were  made  on  Eastman  paper, 
following  exactly  the  Eastman  formula. 

It  is  a  capital  formula.  It  is  a  capital  paper.  The 
only  trouble  was  that  we  were  not  capital  operators,  a 
third  requisite  in  the  case  of  bromides.  The  bromide  is 
reticent  to  excess.  It  never  gives  the  very  smallest 
sign,  misuse  it  in  the  printing  frame  as  you  may. 
121 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


Snowy  white  it  goes  into  the  frame,  snowy  white  it 
comes  out. 

At  first  we  used  to  put  our  paper  in  on  the  wrong 
side;  but  we  soon  knew  better  than  that  The  curly 
side  is  the  right  side. 

But  to  find  the  proper  exposure  was  not  so  simple. 

The  formula  says:  "The  exposure  varies  with  the 
intensity  of  the  negative  and  the  quality  and  intensity 
of  the  light,  but  may  be  approximately  stated  to  be, 
using  as  thin  a  glass  negative  or  film  as  will  make  a 
good  print,  one  second  by  diffused  daylight,  or  ten 
seconds  at  a  distance  of  one  foot  from  a  number  two 
kerosene  burner."  You  will  perceive  that  the  maker  of 
that  formula  may  well  have  been,  in  a  previous 
"  karma,"  a  hired  man  of  the  Delphic  oracle,  accustomed 
to  make  a  good  weatherproof  job,  with  plenty  of  room, 
inside,  to  turn  round. 

"The  intensity  of  the  negative  varies—  infinitely !" 
sai'd  one  of  the  firm,  "and  light  is  about  as  bad;  and 
how  thin  do  you  suppose  a  glass  negative  ought  to  be  to 
make  a  good  print?  " 

Jane  had  not  the  least  idea;  she  supposed  that  we 
must  find  out  by  trying. 

We  did.  Indefinite  as  that  formula  seemed  to  us,  we 
do  not  see,  now,  how  it  could  be  more  precise.  Bro- 
mides are  as  indefinite  as  the  average  conscience.  But 

there  is  this  to  be  said  for  them ;  they  are  not  fickle. 
122 


Printing  by  Development 


They  do  not  act  like  an  angel  with  a  certain  exposure 
and  a  certain  developer,  one  day;  and  turn  into  a  vixen 
under  the  same  circumstances,  the  next,  which  some 
papers  do !  It  may  be  hard  to  hit  on  what  they  need  to 
do  their  best,  but  once  the  proper  environment  is  found, 
the  print  will  work  in  it  as  evenly  as  parallel  lines. 

Discouraged  by  the  apparent  uncertainty  of  the  oxal- 
ate  process  and  the  apparent  complexity  of  the  devel- 
oper (which  we  had  never  tried),  we  developed  our  first 
bromides  with  our  old  friend,  hydroquinone.  But  in  our 
immeasurable  innocence  we  exposed  the  prints  accord- 
ing to  the  oxalate  formula.  Naturally,  we  came  to 
grief;  in  fact,  we  came  to  nothingness,  for  the  pictures 
did  not  favor  us  with  a  glimpse  of  themselves.  By 
steadily  increasing  the  exposure,  we  did  arrive  at  the 
point  of  precipitation  of  the  image  at  last.  But  we 
were  not  so  much  better  off  after  we  had  captured 
the  image,  for  all  the  whites  turned  yellow.  This  we 
judged  to  be  due  to  over-strong  developer  and  under- 
exposure. But  we  never  did  succeed  in  getting  abso- 
lutely pure  whites  with  hydroquinone.  We  told  each 
other  that  a  slight  mellowness  of  tone  was  desirable 
and  artistic.  And  we  returned  to  the  iron. 

To  obtain  accurate  exposures,  we  expose  small  slips 

of  paper  on  the  negative  at  different  distances  and  for 

different   periods,   before  a  large  kerosene  lamp.     We 

expose  until  we  get  an  exposure  and  a  lighting  that  will 

123 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

give  clear  shadows,  full  detail,  and  a  desirable  tone. 
Then  we  describe  the  exposure  on  the  negative  en- 
velope; and  that  negative's  future,  in  bromide,  is  safe. 
For  instance,  here  is  the  thinnest  of  thin  negatives,  called 
"  At  Sunset."  Beneath  the  title  is  written  :  "  Good  only 
in  bromide,  two  seconds,  two  feet  from  copper  lamp. 
Developer,  oxalic  acid,  gray  tones  formula."  The  latter 
part  of  the  description  refers  to  another  experience.  We 
soon  perceived  that  the  developer  could  no  more  be  con- 
stant than  the  exposure,  and  having  fitted  a  developer 
to  a  negative  we  think  it  wise  to  label  the  pattern. 

Almost  our  first  discovery  about  bromides  was  that 
the  color  varies.  The  iron  developer  gives  a  different 
colored  black  from  a  hydroquinone  or  a  pyro  or  an 
eikonogen.  Moreover,  the  iron  developer  itself  gives 
different  tints.  One  print  would  have  a  clean  bluish- 
black,  velvety  rich  and  soft;  a  second  would  show  a 
distinctly  olive  dye  in  its  black,  like  the  doors  of 
modern  colonial  houses ;  another,  still,  would  be  brown 
and  not  black  at  all ;  while  a  fourth  would  be  all  in  the 
loveliest  silver  grays,  deepening  into  a  blue-black  in  the 
depths  of  shadow;  and  besides  these  standard  hues, 
there  were  several  mealy  "  sports,"  as  gardeners  call 
them.  They  all  seemed  to  come  at  their  own  sweet  will, 
independent  of  our  wishes. 

But  one  day  Burton  (who   has  always  offered  us  a 

plank  when  we  have  stuck  fast  in  the  mire — we  call  it 
124 


Printing  by  Development 


being  "  mired  up  "  in  Arkansas)  explained  the  brown 
tints.  They  were  to  be  expected  where  negatives  were 
exposed  for  an  abnormally  long  time  and  development 
had  been  proportionately  retarded.  Having  read  Bur- 
ton, the  member  of  the  firm  who  always  "dares  to  put 
it  to  the  touch,  and  win  or  lose  it  all,"  went  into  the 
studio  and  remained  there  an  entire  afternoon. 

When  Madonna  came  out  to  see  how  she  was  faring, 
the  sun  was  declining,  the  cook  was  beating  waffles  for 
supper,  the  other  maid  was  bustling  to  and  fro  through 
the  passage,  setting  the  table,  the  man  was  building  the 
evening  fires,  and  both  the  dresser  and  the  whole  of  one 
table  were  covered  with  washing-boxes. 

Blessings  on  the  negro  race !  A  white  cook  might 
have  slyly  scowled  at  the  intruders  from  the  studio,  that 
took  up  so  much  space  at  the  busiest  hour  of  the  day  ; 
but  our  black  Jinny  flashed  her  teeth  at  them,  in  live- 
liest sympathy.  "  Miss  —  —  in  dark  room,"  says  Jinny, 
grinning ;  "  she  ben  doin'  of  dem  little  tricks  de  plum 
evenin'." 

"Where  are  the  prints?"  says  Madonna,  fishing 
among  the  dismembered  bits  of  pictures. 

"  These  are  my  jewels,"  returns  the  photographer, 
emerging  from  the  room  with  a  neat  combination  air  of 
Cornelia  with  the  reporters  and  Horatius  at  the  bridge. 
"  This,  lady,  has  been  an  afternoon  of  scientific  explora- 
tion, not  ornamental  printing." 
125 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


"I  hope  you  haven't  used  up  all  the  paper  in  your 
experiments,"  Jane  puts  in,  advancing,  and  eying  the 
bits  in  the  water. 

The  scientist's  life  is  ever  a  lonely  one  ;  he  dwells  on 
the  heights,  where  there  is  rest  but  not  much  general 
society.  But  from  that  afternoon's  derided  experiments 
we  really  did  learn  the  secret  of  bromide  colors.  The 
sepia  tints  can  be  produced  at  will,  if  one  will  take  a 
strong  negative,  give  it  a  long  exposure  and  retarded 
developer.  The  green  tones  come  under  much  the  same 
causes,  over-exposure  and  development  kept  back  by 
bromide. 

Whether,  when  one  has  gotten  the  brown  and  green 
tints,  they  are  worth  keeping,  is  another  question.  The 
brown  tints,  I  may  say  further,  will  only  come  on  well- 
balanced,  dense  negatives  ;  but  the  green  ones  are  more 
democratic  and  come  on  thin  negatives,  dense  negatives, 
and  medium  negatives ;  but  I  imagine  preferably  on 
the  moderately  thin  negatives. 

The  brown  tone  is  brown  and  not  a  brownish-black, 
but  it  is  a  cold  rather  than  a  warm  sepia.  Bromide 
prints  may  be  toned  a  warmer  and  evener  hue  without 
the  minute  painstaking  that  is  necessary  to  develop 
them  brown.* 

Iron  is  the  density -giving  element,  and  oxalate  the 

*  We  append  the  formula.  T  only  tried  it  twice,  but  obtained 
tones  from  red  to  brown  easily. 

126 


Printing  by  Development 


detail  giver  in  the  iron  developer.  We  have  come  to 
developing  our  bromides  tentatively,  just  as  we  develop 
our  negatives.  We  soak  the  print  in  most  cases  in  a 
tray  of  plain  water  for  a  few  seconds  or  a  minute.  This 
is  only  to  soften  the  film.  Where  for  any  reason  we 
would  not  weaken  the  developer  by  even  that  minute  por- 
tion of  water  that  is  left  in  the  film,  we  soak  the  paper 
in  oxalate  of  potash  solution.  Then  we  rock  the  tray. 
In  a  very  short  time,  hardly  more  than  a  minute,  usually, 
the  details  begin  to  appear.  We  now  add  a  little  of 
the  iron  solution  to  the  oxalate.  To  make  this  addition 
we  ought  to  pour  the  oxalate  into  a  graduate,  and  stir 
in  the  iron  with  a  glass  rod,  for  there  is  great  danger  of 
the  developer  not  mixing  evenly  and  the  print  developing 
in  patches,  if  the  iron  is  simply  poured  into  the  tray. 

I  say  we  ought :  we  do  as  we  ought  about  once 
in  thirty-five  times.  We  trust  to  a  little  sleight-of- 
hand  that  is  the  property  of  all  trades,  and  blindly 
trusted  by  all  artisans  of  experience.  We  give  two  or 
three  rocks  and  expect  to  mingle  the  ingredients.  We 
keep  on  adding  the  iron  until  the  print  has  nearly 
enough  density.  Obstinate  shadows  we  paint  just  as 
we  paint  them  in  negatives,  sometimes  with  concen- 
trated developer,  sometimes  with  iron,  sometimes  with 
oxalate.  Immediately  before  the  development  is  com- 
plete, on  the  very  edge  of  the  last  moment  of  grace, 
there  passes  over  the  print  an  indescribable,  flashing 
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An  Adventure  in  Photography 


change,  every  line  sharpens,  every  tint  deepens,  it  as- 
sumes that  indefinable  attribute  that  we  call  brilliancy. 
Now  is  the  crisis!  A  second  before  this  the  print 
was  flat,  a  second  later  it  may  become  morosely  dark ; 
the  developer  must  be  poured  off  instantly  and  the 
paper  be  flooded  with  dilute  acid  to  stop  the  develop- 
ment Now  the  print  is  safe ;  it  will  not  change  again. 
You  may  not  wash  out  the  acid,  or  you  may  not  fix 
sufficiently,  or  you  may  not  wash  enough  at  the  end, 
and  your  picture,  because  of  any  one  of  these  errors,  may 
fade  and  perish,  but  so  far  as  its  present  appearance 
goes  it  is  out  of  danger.  We  sometimes  prefer  to  finish 
our  development  in  a  tray  of  water  instead  of  the  acid, 
especially  if  we  desire  a  soft  effect.  Water  always 
has  a  softening  touch.  Generally  we  wash  off  the  print 
in  three  baths  of  the  acid  water,  and  put  it  to  soak  in  a 
tray  of  water  to  wait  until  the  others  shall  be  ready  to 
accompany  it  to  the  hypo.  We  develop  one  print  at  a 
time,  but  we  fix  and  wash  a  dozen  or  two  in  company. 
We  like  to  fix  them  in  two  baths — a  strong  bath  and  a 
fresh  weak  bath.  We  make  up  the  hypo  afresh  each 
time  of  using. 

We  have  obtained  good  results  by  adapting  the  East- 
man formula  to  the  tentative  method  of  development 
thus  described ;  and  we  have  obtained  equally  good  results 
by  following  the  respected  formulae  that  you  may  see  in 
the  usual  place,  at  the  end  of  the  chapter.  We  have 


Printing  by  Development 


enamelled  bromides  in  a  simple  way,  by  damping  them 
and  squeegeeing  them  to  an  ebonite  sheet  The  squeegee 
started  in  the  world  as  a  sink  utensil,  but  it  did  its  work 
none  the  less  effectively  for  its  humble  origin.  They 
are  laid  on  the  ebonite  (or  on  a  ferrotype)  gelatine  side 
downward,  squeegeed  free  of  air  bells,  dried  and  peeled 
off.  That  is  the  whole  operation  ;  and  if  the  gelatine 
coating  is  of  normal  thickness  it  is  certain  to  be  success- 
ful* 

Bromide  development  is  infinitely  elastic,  flexible,  and 
— best  quality  of  all  in  man,  beast,  or  bromide — trusty. 
The  rough  papers  can  give  something  nearer  to  an 
engraving  effect  than  any  other  photographic  paper. 
They  are  richer  and  more  translucent  in  their  shadows 
than  the  platinotype,  their  next  friend  and  rival,  or  the 
kallitypes.  They  may  be  printed  independent  of 
weather  or  time,  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  and  they 
are  so  rapid  in  their  printing  manual  that  they  appeal 
irresistibly  to  bus}7  people.  The  more  we  know  them 
the  better  we  like  them. 

In  some  respects,  however,  the  bromide  cannot  come 
near  the  proud  position  of  another  developing  paper, 
the  platinotype.  The  balance  of  the  scales  is  adjusted 
by  corresponding  weaknesses ;  and  if  anything  we  prefer 

*  Cyanotypes  (blue  prints)  can  be  treated  in  the  same  way.  We 
have  obtained  a  high  gloss  on  them,  which  seems  (three  years  later) 
to  be  lasting. 

129 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


the  bromides.  When  the  question  has  to  do  with  their 
faults,  we  can  only  say  about  both  papers  what  Alice 
said  about  the  carpenter  and  the  walrus,  "  Well,  they 
are  loth  very  disagreeable!"  The  bromide  needs  a 
strong  and  intrepid  spirit  to  control  its  frantic  pace;  the 
platinotype  requires  the  sleepless  caution  of  Louis  XL  or 
a  sitting  hen ! 

The  virtues  of  the  platinotype  (of  which  you  will 
hear  in  all  the  circulars)  are:  First,  its  simplicity. 
Excepting  only  Pizeghelli's  modification,*  it  is  the  sim- 
plest of  all  photographic  printing  papers.  Secondly, 
its  independence  of  that  contaminating  Mephistopheles, 
hypo.  The  platinotype  needs  no  fixing  in  hypo ;  it 
washes  and  cleans  itself  in  easily  managed  baths  of 
muriatic  acid ;  and  because  it  has  no  dealings  with  hypo, 
the  final  washing  only  takes  half  an  hour,  and  is  done 
by  shifting  from  one  tray  to  another  in  the  most  conven- 
ient way  in  the  world.  Thirdly,  its  flexibility  ;  it  stays 
where  it  is  put,  and  always  knows  its  place.  These  are 
virtues  wherein  it  excels  the  bromide ;  other  virtues  that 
it  shares  with  the  bromide  are  its  delicacy,  its  exceeding 
beauty,  and  its  permanence.  The  faults  of  the  platino- 
type (which  you  will  find  out  for  yourself)  are  its  incur- 
able, morbid  sensitiveness  to  damp,  and  its  uncertain 
printing. 

The  image  should  faintly  show,  one  is  told,  but  some 

*  And  blue  prints. 
130 


Printing  by  Development 

negatives  need  to  show  more  than  others.  Print  to 
precisely  the  depth  that  you  have  printed  before,  with 
happy  success,  and  you  may  be  horrified  to  behold  your 
picture  black  and  hard.  The  platinotype,  also,  asks  a 
good  deal  of  its  original  glass ;  it  has  nothing  like  the 
generous  hospitality  of  the  bromide  to  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  negatives ;  no,  its  majesty  must  have  a 
fine,  dense,  and  vigorous  negative,  almost  too  hard  for 
albumen  printing.  We  prefer  to  make  negatives  espe- 
cially for  our  platinotypes.  The  new  cold  process, 
however,  is  much  more  adaptable  than  the  old  hot 
process,  and  we  have  made  good  prints  from  decidedly 
thin  negatives.  But  the  printing  scarecrow  did  not 
daunt  us  ;  we  contrived  to  judge  of  exposures,  although 
we  should  much  prefer  there  were  no  image  at  all,  since 
it  comes  but  to  betray;  neither  did  its  exclusive  tastes 
in  negatives  drive  us  away ;  we  have  plenty  of  good, 
firm  negatives ;  and  if  we  have  not  we  hope  to  make 
them  in  future — we  are  going  to  do  considerable, 
like  all  amateurs,  in  that  vague  and  omnipotent  time. 
The  black  drop  in  the  platinotype  cup  that  makes 
us  set  it  down  untasted  is  none  of  these ;  it  is  that  either 
we  are  not  dry  enough  for  the  platinotype,  or  the  pla- 
tinotype is  too  dry  for  us  !  We  did  not  once  get  really 
fresh  paper ;  only  once  or  twice  did  we  get  paper  that 
gave  us  a  hint  of  what  fresh  paper  could  do. 

In  fine,  we  were  conquered.     But  we  are  hoping  to 
131 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


sensitize  our  own  paper,  obtaining  the  sensitizing  fluids 
from  Willis  and  Clements,  the  platinotype  proprietors ; 
and  we  anticipate,  after  the  usual  stumbles,  that  we 
shall  be  as  fortunate  as  in  our  sensitizing  of  blue  paper. 
We  used  the  formula  on  the  papers  and  found  no 
improvements.  We  could  get  better  prints  when  we 
printed  in  the  bright  sunlight  than  in  the  shade.  And 
we  fancied  that  we  got  sharper  prints  when  the  develop- 
ment was  rapid  than  when  it  was  slow ;  but  that  the 
slow  prints  were  more  delicate. 

Eapid  paper  we  tried,  and  have  no  reason  either  to 
detail  our  destruction  of  one  box  of  aged  paper  that 
its  inventor  sold  to  the  dealer  as  a  first  effort,  and  the 
dealer  for  years  must  have  been  trying  to  sell  to  some 
one  else,  or  to  point  with  pride  to  anything  about  the 
business. 

The  Pizzighelli  paper  is  a  black  and  white  paper, 
very  simple — a  photographic  babe  could  manage  the 
process — and  resembling  a  rather  ineffectual  and  timid 
platinotype  in  its  looks.  It  is  developed  like  a  blue 
print,  but  not  printed  so  deeply.  A  few  trials  will  indi- 
cate the  necessary  exposure. 

Far  more  intricate,  but  to  our  taste  far  more  fascinat- 
ing, is  the  printing  on  positive  films  of  celluloid.  They 
take  an  infinitesimal  exposure,  a  second  by  a  faint  lamp- 
light for  a  thin  negative  has  sufficed  me,  and  needed  the 

full  dose  of  bromide  in  the  developer  to  the  bargain. 
132 


Printing  by  Development 


They  make  a  beautiful,  porcelain-like  picture.  Dense, 
brilliant  negatives  are  best  for  subjects  with  them.  It 
would  please  me  to  be  able  to  remark  something  about 
lantern  slides ;  but  I  can  only  say  that  in  the  language 
of  Dr.  Young,  "  Procrastination  is  the  thief  of  time," 
and  that  is  why  we  never  arrived  at  the  point  of  mak- 
ing lantern  slides.  Neither  did  we  ever  attack  the  most 
exquisite  of  all  the  photographic  processes,  the  carbon 
process. 

FORMULAE. 

Besides  all  the  standard  developers  there  are  fancy  messings 
wherein  the  uninitiated  can  discern  no  end  nor  aim  except  a  deter- 
mination to  use  as  many  drugs  as  possible.  Hydroquinone  and 
eikonogen  all  have  admirers,  and  now  comes  a  potent  developer  to 
which  all  the  others  are  as  infants.  Dr.  Stolze,  who  applied  this 
agent  to  the  development  of  bromide  paper,  adopted  the  formulas 
of  Dr.  Andei'son,  viz. : 

(1)-- Water 32    ounces. 

Hydrochlorate  of  para-amidophenol 85    grains. 

Sodium  sulphite 1   oz.  5  dr. 

Potassium  carbonate 6|  drams. 

and 

(2)— In  boiling  water 3$  ounces, 

dissolve 

Potassium  metabisulphite 1    ounce, 

and 
Hydrochlorate  of  para-amidophenol 3    drams, 

and  add  to  the  solution,  by  constantly  agitating  it,  saturated  solu- 
tion of  caustic  soda,  till  the  precipitation  formed  is  redissolved.  The 
solution  is  used  diluted  with  from  5  to  50  volumes  of  water,  as 
exigencies  may  require. 

133 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


A  DEVELOPER  THAT  WORKS  WELL  WITH  ALL  KINDS  OF  NEGATIVES, 
AND  NOTES  WHEREIN  IS  CONDENSED  THE  WlSDOM  OF  PoRTMAN, 
GRUNDLACH,  ADEE,  JANEWAY,  AND  OTHERS  OF  THE  WISE. 

A. — 1  pound  neutral  oxalate  of  potash.  Dissolve  potash  in  the 
hot  water.  When  cold  (and  be  particular  that  it  is  cold,  not  tepid  !) 
add  100  grains  oxalic  acid  dissolved  in  1  fluid  ounce  of  hot  water 
and  cooled.  Add  half  the  acid  solution  at  once,  and  the  rest  slowly, 
testing  with  litmus  paper  until  bright  red  specks  can  be  seen  on 
the  paper. 

B. — Take  8  ounce  bottle  well  cleaned  and  put  into  it 

960  grains  protosulphate  of  iron  (2  ounces  Troy), 
100  grains  citric  acid, 
80  grains  bromide  of  potassium. 

Add  distilled  water  (if  you  can  get  it  ;  we  never  could !)  to  make  up 
to  eight  ounces.  Shake  well,  and  lay  the  vial  on  its  side  in  a  warm 
place  until  the  crystals  of  iron  are  dissolved.  This  will  soon  occur, 
and  the  bottle  will  be  full  of  a  pale  green,  beautifully  clear  liquid 
which  will  keep  well.  We  found  it  wise  on  account  of  the  perish- 
able and  changeable  nature  of  the  iron  to  buy  ounce  bottles  of  pow- 
dered iron.  These  being  kept  away  from  the  air  kept  very  well. 
Another  way  is  to  fill  up  the  sulphate  of  iron  bottles  with  watei',  and 
whenever  any  crystals  are  taken  out  to  fill  up  again  with  water. 

To  obtain  gray  prints  take  two  drams  of  the  iron  solution  to  one 
fluid  ounce  of  the  oxalate.  Give  rather  a  short  exposure. 

To  obtain  dense  black  and  white  prints,  add  one  half-ounce  water 
to  the  gray  mixture  and  give  one  or  two  seconds'  longer  exposure. 

To  obtain  warm  tones  (so-called)  take  a  perfect  negative  and  about 
fifty  per  cent,  longer  exposure,  adding  three-fourths  to  one  ounce  of 
water  to  the  oxalic  solution. 

This  formula  I  copy  from  our  note-book  ;  it  is  not 
ours,  but  Mr.  A.  A.  Adee's.  It  is  admirable,  and  has 
never  once  failed.  Even  our  messings  and  variations 

of  it  have  not  affected  its  active  usefulness. 
134 


Printing  by  Development 


The  clearing  solution  is  a  hundred  grains  of  oxalic  acid  to  one 
quart  of  water.  We  use  about  a  gallon  of  clearing  solution  to  a 
dozen  5  by  8  prints. 

Eastman's  fixing  bath  is  a  good  one  ;  but  one   that   pleases  us 


Fixing  soda 200  grams  (not  grains). 

Acid  sulphite    or  double   sulphite 

of  soda 50  grams. 

Water 1000  grams. 

Alum  is  not  needed  with  this  bath. 

NOTES. — It  is  well  to  have  normal  developer  mixed  in  a  graduate, 
and  also  some  well  restrained  by  bromide.  We  are  not  altogether 
settled  in  our  minds  as  to  the  sphere  and  value  of  bromide.  Un- 
doubtedly it  does  all  that  its  approvers  promise  in  the  way  of 
restraint  and  contrast,  but  with  us  the  question  is,  Does  it  impair 
the  purity  of  the  tones  ?  Can  you  get  as  clean  and  rich  a  color 
where  bromide  is  used  in  excess  ?  Grundlach  is  positive  that 
bromide  is  color  safe.  He  uses  bromide  freely  ;  the  more  contrast 
needed,  the  more  bromide.  Sometimes  he  will  have  as  much  bromide 
in  his  developer  as  he  has  iron,  and  he  uses  sixteen  times  as  much 
iron  as  Eastman's  formula  requests.  He  uses  oxalic  acid  for  clear- 
ing. One  ounce  to  a  pint  of  water  for  the  first  two  clearings,  half 
an  ounce  to  the  pint  for  the  third  clearing,  and  pure  water  for  the 
fourth. 

Imlah  prefers  long  exposure  and  a  weak  developer  to 
'quick  exposure  and  strong  developer.  Dense  negatives 
need  a  developer  weak  in  iron,  and  thin  negatives  as 
much  iron  as  they  can  bear.  In  extreme  cases  he  has 
used  (and  we  know  by  experience  that  it  is  safe  and 
profitable)  as  much  as  one  to  three  for  proportion. 

Boracic  acid  makes  a  good  restrainer  in  the  stead  of  bromide. 
— (E.  Audra.) 

Never  neutralize  or  acidify  solutions  by  litmus  paper  at  night  ; 
135 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


lamp  or  gas  light,   being  more  or  less  yellow,  gives  uncertain  values 
to  color. — (Adee.) 

The  following  toning  bath  answers  well,  after  fixing,  if  the  print  is 
at  all  green  : 

Sulphocyanide  of  ammonium 30  grains. 

Chloride  of  gold 1  grain. 

Water 4  ounces. 

Half  a  minute  in  this  bath  will  give  the  print  a  rich  black  tone  ; 
a  longer  time  will  turn  the  print  blue,  which  answers  very  well  for 
moonlight  effects." — (Portman.) 

EIKONOGEN  DEVELOPER  FOR  BROMIDE  PRINTS  (GEN.  JOSEPH  BROWN). 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  soda  (pure  crystals) 120  grains. 

Water 8  ounces. 

Dissolve,  and  add 
Eikonogen 60  grains. 


Potass,  carb 240  grains. 

Water 5  ounces. 

Three  ounces  No.  1  to  one  ounce  No.  2. 

If  made  fresh,  a  few  drops  of  bromide  potass,  solution  may  be 
added  with  advantage,  but  I  prefer  a  developer  that  has  been  used 
already  for  negatives. 

HYDROO.UINONE  DEVELOPER  FOR  BROMIDE  PRINTS. 

No.  1. 

Sulphite  soda  (pure  crystals) 240  grains. 

Water 4  ounces. 

Dissolve,  and  add 

Hydroquinone 60  grains. 

136 


Printing  by  Development 

No.  2. 
Saturated  solution  carb.  soda  (washing  soda). 

Two  drams  No.  1  to  one  dram  No.  2  ;  add  water  to  make  four 
ounces. 

These  will  develop  successively  a  number  of  prints.  The  image 
appears  very  slowly,  but  soon  attains  full  black  tones. 

No  acid  bath  is  required. 

Transferrotype  paper  is  a  beautiful  variety  of  bro- 
mide paper  and  quite  as  easily  managed.  To  obtain 
warm  tones  on  either  it  or  the  other  brands,  take,  after 
fixing  and  thorough  washing  (this  is  most  important), 

Potassium  f erricyanide 9  grains. 

Uranium  nitrate 8  grains. 

Glacial  acetic  acid 5  drams. 

Water 16  ounces. 

Immerse  the  print  in  this  toning  solution.  Tone  to 
desired  color,  and  wash  in  running  water  twenty-five 
minutes,  or  until  print  is  free  from  yellow  color.  The 
toning  solution  is  made  by  dissolving  the  ferricyanide 
(it  will  turn  into  ferrocyanide  if  exposed  to  the  air,  and 
be  of  no  use ;  therefore  care  must  be  taken !)  in  the 
water,  let  it  stand  a  few  minutes,  add  the  acetic  acid 
and  then  the  uranium.  "The  secret  of  success  lies  in 
washing  the  print  free  from  iron  and  hypo  before 
toning."  I  can  testify  to  the  truth  of  this. 


137 


CHAPTER  YII 

INTERIORS 

GOOD  interiors  depend  more  on  patience  than  on 
anything  else.  They  are  best  taken  on  a  very  rapid 
plate.  There  is  no  rule  that  can  be  followed  slavishly 
in  their  presentment.  Everything  is  a  question  of 
lighting. 

We  began  trustfully  exposing  by  the  rule,  "  As  many 
minutes  in-doors  as  seconds  out-of-doors."  And  very 
queer  pictures  the  rule  gave  us.  I  have  taken  an  inte- 
rior in  two  minutes,  and  I  have  prowled  around  a 
camera,  to  keep  away  intruders,  for  an  hour  and  a  half. 
It  all  depends  on  the  amount  of  light  your  picture  is 
allowed.  The  only  way  we  could  ever  determine  that 
fluctuating  and  deceptive  factor  in  the  making  of  a 
negative,  was  to  expose  small  plates  the  time  we  thought 
nearly  right,  and  add  or  reduce  according  to  results. 
We  were  liberal  in  our  dealings  and  commonly  were 
rewarded  by  a  good  clear  print.  We  use  a  small  stop, 
for  in  interiors  sharp  definition  is  imperative. 

There  is  a  grave  fault  of  negative  plates  that  we  often 
saw  discussed  in  the  books  but  never  had  experienced 
until  we  took  a  corner  of  a  room,  and  beheld  in  the 


Interiors 


singular  large  circle  of  brighter  light  the  blighting 
touch  of  halation.  How  it  came  we  never  knew. 
It  never  came  again.  Since  that  time  we  have  encoun- 
tered a  multitude  of  articles  in  books  and  papers  on 
halation — what  it  is,  why  it  comes,  how  to  avoid  it — 
but  we  cannot  lav  our  hands  on  our  hearts  and  say  that 
we  are  one  whit  the  wiser  for  this  diffused  light  on  the 
subject.  It  was  supposed  that  celluloid  and  other  films 
would  be  free  from  halation,  which  was  laid  to  the 
peculiar  account  of  glass ;  but  we  have  read  that  it 
persists  in  films  as  well  as  glass.  In  spite  of  the  noise 
made,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  halation  is  very  rare — 
too  rare  for  the  average  amateur,  who  has  so  many 
nearer  and  more  demoralizing  perils  to  manage,  to  con- 
cern himself  about  it.  It  is,  we  venture  to  suggest  to 
the  painstaking  comrade,  considerably  easier  to  repeat 
one  negative  in  fifty  or  sixty  or  a  hundred,  than  it  is  to 
"  back "  all  those  fifty  or  sixty  or  hundred  frightfully 
susceptible  dry  plates  with  non-actinic  backing. 

A  kind  of  second  cousin  to  halation,  which  happens 
frequently  in  interior  view  taking,  is  the  glare  on  picture 
glass.  Usually  it  can  be  detected  while  focusing.  Glass 
can  be  deprived  of  this  shine  by  coating  it  with  a  wash 
of  thin  starch,  or  any  other  liquid  substance  that  will 
give  a  mat  surface.  We  have  found  it  even  simpler, 
however,  to  take  down  the  picture  and  put  something 

else  in  its  place. 

139 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


The  wise  recommend  lighting  dark  corners  of  the 
room  to  be  taken,  with  lamps  placed  out  of  the  angle  of 
view.  We  have  tried  the  scheme.  We  never  could  tell 
whether  it  did  the  least  good  or  not.  But  it  gives  the 
photographer  a  sense  of  having  done  his  duty,  and  that 
is  gratifying. 

Windows  are  the  betes  noirs  of  the  interior  photog- 
rapher. They  have  a  trick  of  becoming  developed  by 
the  light  until  they  are  mere  fuzzy  white  spaces,  no 
vestige  of  window  architecture,  curtains,  or  space  beyond 
being  left.  The  best  way  of  dealing  with  this  dilemma, 
in  our  humble  opinion,  is  to  let  them  go  on  printing  and 
take  their  own  way ;  and  afterwards,  with  a  little  alco- 
hol and  turpentine,  or  ferricyanide  of  potassium  and 
hypo,  and  some  camel's  hair  brushes,  to  reduce  the 
window  to  a  proper  condition.  One  may,  however, 
shut  the  blinds  of  the  window  and  keep  them  shut 
until  just  before  the  time  of  completing  the  exposure, 
when  the  cap  may  be  replaced  and  the  blinds  opened 
and  the  window  exposed  for  the  length  of  time  sufficient 
to  print  it  clearly. 

I  once  took  a  pretty  picture  of  a  child  asleep  before 
the  fire,  his  little  curly  head  resting  on  the  open  leaves 
of  a  huge  picture-book,  the  sunlight  falling  on  him 
through  two  long  windows  on  either  side  of  the  fire- 
place. It  was  a  corner  fireplace,  and  precautions  had 

to  be  taken  to  avoid  cross  lights.     He  was  taken  asleep 
140 


Interiors 

because  he  could  be  kept  quieter  in  that  position.  The 
blinds  of  one  window  were  closed,  and  opened  later, 
with  the  best  result.  The  whole  exposure  did  not  take 
two  minutes,  and  the  negative  came  up  strong  and  clear, 
yet  soft,  with  a  large  range  of  half-tones.  The  pictures 
on  the  walls,  the  carving  of  the  mantelpiece,  the  pattern 
of  the  Persian  rug  as  well  as  the  child's  figure,  on  which 
the  picture  was  focused,  all  were  beautifully  defined. 
Through  the  open  space  between  the  window  curtains 
one  could  see  a  dim  lawn  and  trees.  You  could  not  ask 
better  windows  or  better  light  effects,  and  the  child's 
mother  said,  "Oh,  doesn't  he  look  sweet?  It  \sperfecl 
of  him  !  "  Yet  I  never  display  that  picture.  It  has  a 
trivial  defect — trivial,  but  a  bar  to  display;  it  is  not 
rectilinear,  and  the  beautiful  mantelpiece  and  the  beau- 
tiful windows  are  too  much  like  a  hen-coop  in  out- 
line! 

Probably  the  swing-back  was  the  culprit;  the  swing- 
back  is  rather  more  "  obsessed  "  than  any  of  the  other 
evil-doers  in  the  camera,  and  it  is  the  peculiarity  of  its 
mischief  that  it  is  in  collusion  with  the  ground  glass; 
and  to  look  at  the  image  on  the  screen  one  wouldn't 
dream  the  lines  were  crooked.  I  dare  say  the  explana- 
tion of  the  apparent  rectilinear  lines  is  that  one  looks 
naturally  only  at  the  central  plane  in  focusing.  If  any 
careless  amateur  will  hereafter  glance  at  the  top  of  his 
screen  and  calculate  whether  he  is  making  a  coop  out  of 
141 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

his  walls,  and  thus  be  warned  in  time,  my  humiliation 
will  not  have  been  in  vain. 

Often,  a  fire  is  burning  in  the  scene.  It  would  be 
pleasant  to  include  it.  But  when  the  negative  has  been 
developed  the  fire  has  vanished.  This  is  because  it  has 
printed  itself  out  of  sight.  A  little  painting  with  a 
reducing  mixture  will  sometimes  do  wonders ;  but  it  is 
as  well  to  help  the  reducer.  A  good  plan  is  to  take  the 
picture  with  the  fire  unlighted  but  laid  ready  to  light; 
then  to  cap  the  lens,  light  the  fire,  and  give  an  instanta- 
neous exposure  with  a  large  stop  to  the  leaping  flames. 
The  changing  from  the  small  to  the  large  stop  will  do 
no  harm  to  the  other  parts  of  the  picture,  because  the 
exposure  is  too  short,  but  it  will  both  increase  the  light 
on  the  lens  for  the  instantaneous  exposure  and  give  a 
desirable,  soft,  broad  effect  to  the  image  of  the  flames. 

The  most  interesting  interiors  have  some  suggestion 
about  them.  But  the  ordinary  amateur  interior  ban- 
ishes suggestion  as  a  crime.  The  room  to  be  photo- 
graphed is  swept  and  garnished.  The  books  on  the 
table  are  placed  in  neat  piles;  no  cheerful,  homely  litter 
is  allowed  inside  the  view  angle;  the  pictures  have  the 
uncompromising  severity  of  tidiness  of  the  day  after 
house-cleaning,  in  a  New  England  mansion. 

That  interior  of  a  fireplace  would  be  improved  if  a 
large  white  cat— which  I  see  at  this  moment  purring  in 

the  sun — were  blinking  at  its  glow.      But  we  did  not 
142 


INTERIOR    WITH    FIREPLACE. 


Interiors 

put  the  cat  in,  because  a  cat  cannot  be  expected  to  blink 
in  one  position  for  half  an  hour  !  We  have  a  cat  that 
we  shall  put  into  a  fireside  scene  some  day,  however — 
a  cat  certain  not  to  stir,  being  a  cat  of  cotton  neatly 
printed  into  the  breathing  image  of  the  creature. 

We  shall  bunch  the  rug  up  about  its  base  and  put 
it  into  the  position  of  its  best  perspective,  and  no  one 
will  ever  suspect  how  meretricious  is  our  art !  We 
don't  mind  a  bit  being  tawdry  and  theatrical  if  we  can 
escape  being  found  out. 

Interiors  need  a  small  stop,  as  they  require  sharp  def- 
inition. They  are  commonly  taken  with  a  very  wide- 
angle  lens ;  but  such  a  lens  must  be  managed  with 
some  caution,  on  account  of  its  distortion.  Who  has 
not  seen  the  giant  chairs  without  legs  and  the  unsup- 
ported tables  looming  up  in  the  foreground  of  a  picture 
of  a  drawing-room,  which,  to  judge  from  the  diminutive 
furniture  against  the  wall,  must  be  of  immense  size  ? 

The  flash  light  was  hailed  with  a  vast  deal  of  enthu- 
siasm as  the  Open  Sesame  to  instantaneous  photogra- 
phy in  interiors ;  but  this  enthusiasm  has  cooled  of  late 
years.  Most  flash-light  pictures  have  rampant  contrast, 
a  sorry  slighting  of  detail,  thick  shadows,  and  a  general 
chalky,  undeveloped,  half-baked  look.  There  are  ama- 
teurs that  can  make  artistic  flash-light  pictures.  We 
are  not  of  these  gifted  souls.  We  do  not  affect  the 
flash  light.  The  babies  of  our  families  have  not  been 
143 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


taken  in  their  cunning  little  bathtubs  and  their  sweet 
little  skins  by  their  adoring  aunts  ;  not  they,  not  by  us  ! 
They  have  been  taken  out-doors  on  their  velvet  lawns 
under  their  noble  trees,  also  under  umbrellas ;  and  we 
think  they  look  quite  as  pretty. 


144 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PORTRAITS  ;    A   CONFESSION 

"  SAY,  Miz — wud  you  all  be  willing  to  draw  maw  ?  " 

"  Take  jour  mother's  picture?  "  says  Jane.     It  is  she 

that  is  "  Mrs. ,"  and  she  it  is  that  the  slip  of  a  girl 

with  the  pretty  face  and  bare  little  feet  is  addressing. 

"  Yes'm,"  answers  the  girl,  nervously  smoothing  the 
torn  front  of  her  calico  frock  ;  "  maw's  pretty  old,  and  we 
caynt  expect  to  keep  her  much  longer.  And  sister  and 
me,  we'd  be  right  glad  to  come  and  holp  you  all's 
black  man  weed  the  gyarden." 

"  Very  well,"  says  Jane  with  a  quiet  sigh  ;  "  tell  your 
mother  to  come  here  some  afternoon." 

The  mother  appeared  the  next  day,  in  her  Sunday 
attire,  which  was  as  unsuited  to  photography  as  to 
fashion.  She  had  a  bright,  figured  gown,  and  a  small 
handkerchief  pinned  about  her  throat  with  a  brass 
breastpin. 

She  did  not  look  to  be  much  more  than  forty,  and 
said  she  was  "right  peart,  ginerrally  was  nuthin'  the 
matter  of  her"  when  we  politely  inquired  about  her 
health.  I  think  that  her  daughter's  solicitude  was 
simply  her  notion  of  the  proper  filial  attitude. 
10  145 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


We  took  her  portrait,  and  the  daughters  honorably 
weeded  the  garden. 

The  experience  is  one  often  repeated,  so  often  that 
it  has  become  a  sensible  drain  both  on  our  purse  and 
our  time.  At  first  we  were  so  flattered  that  any  one 
should  want  our  pictures  that  we  did  not  think  of  refus- 
ing the  kind  admirers.  But  admiration  palls  on  the 
jaded  taste  ;  and  we  would  fain  long  since  have  lost  our 
fame  among  our  own  people;  but  it  will  not  wane, 
rather  it  increases,  and  the  expense  and  the  trouble 
thereof;  and  babies  have  been  brought  miles  to  our 
camera. 

To  do  our  sitters  justice,  they  are  perfectly  willing 
to  pay,  and  have  been  known  to  suggest  eggs,  onions, 
or  chickens  with  sincere  cordiality.  We  did.  in  fact, 
receive  a  fishing-rod  (made  out  of  the  cane  of  the 
region)  from  a  grateful  mother ;  and  a  grateful  father 
was  with  difficulty  dissuaded  from  sending  us  a  live 
owl 

The  southern  planter  is  still  the  natural  protector  of 
his  tenants,  expected  to  supply  all  their  wants,  from 
brandy  in  sickness  to  photographs  in  health.  If  the 
"  store  "  keeps  oranges  or  lemons  or  apples,  the  desirer  of 
fruit  will  buy  them  at  any  price  asked  ;  if  it  has  none, 
he  will  go  cheerfully  to  the  planter's  house  and  get  them 
for  nothing  !  But  he  will  not  be  ungrateful — shades  of 

tender  frying  chickens  that  never  cost  us  a  cent,  and 
146 


HOW    THE    FOCUS    BETRAYS. 


Portraits  ;  a  Confession 

succulent  young  onions,  so  suited  to  our  retired  life,  for- 
bid the  slander ! 

Myself,  I  am  glad  that  I  have  been  permitted  to  give 
so  much  pleasure  with  such  prodigiously  poor  pictures 
as  most  of  our  portraits  have  been.  I  say  most,  I  do  not 
say  all,  because  I  see  no  reason  why  one  should  be  a  liar 
even  to  appear  modest !  Jane  has  taken  some  portraits 
of  which  any  one  might  be  proud  ;  I  have  taken  a  few 
myself  that  would  grade,  according  to  cotton  rating,  as 
"good  ordinary,"  if  not  "  low  middling." 

The  amateur  who  is  expected  to  take  portraits  with  a 
landscape  lens  must  make  up  his  mind  that  he  will  take 
bad  ones.  Two  lenses  ought  to  set  the  landscape  pho- 
tographer up  in  business;  four  to  six,  I  am  told,  is 
none  too  many  for  a  portrait  studio. 

It  is  not  only  the  lens  that  waits  to  humble  him.  Por- 
traits are  a  distinct  art,  to  be  acquired  by  long,  patient 
study  superadded  to  natural  gift.  The  lighting,  the 
posing,  the  focusing  must  all  be  learned  afresh.  Our 
first  lesson  was  that,  if  we  wished  to  do  anything  above 
mediocre  work,  we  must  keep  out  in  the  open  air.  When 

poor  Sallv  S brought  her  baby  four  miles  to  have  it 

"drawed,"  and  we  took  the  picture  in  the  studio,  by 
the  open  door,  and  only  got  about  half  a  baby  out 
on  the  plate,  we  became  discouraged  with  in-door  por- 
traiture. Like  Goethe,  we  cried  for  "Light,  more 

light ! " 

147 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

But  we  soon  discovered  that  light  was  not  enough. 

I  took  a  portrait  of  Jane,  out-doors.  I  rigged  up  a 
background  of  a  dark  green  screen.  I  put  the  screen 
against  the  side  of  the  house,  making  a  wall  about  Jane, 
which  I  told  her  would  give  much  the  effect  of  top 
lighting  from  a  skylight.  She  said  that  they  always 
had  reflectors  in  studios,  so  T  reflected  on  her  with  a 
white  tablecloth  thrown  over  a  side  of  the  screen.  It 
rather  lessened  the  usefulness  of  the  reflector  that  we 
had  not  thought  to  look  after  the  sun,  which  had  slipped 
round  on  the  other  side  of  the  house  and  was  lighting 
Jane  obliquely  through  the  walls  of  a  comfortable 
Southern  home.  I  persuaded  Jane  to  wear  a  most 
becoming  fur-trimmed  jacket.  She  said  it  was  not  a 
summer  jacket,  and  the  day  was  warm  ;  but  I  told  her 
the  temperature  would  not  show  in  the  picture  and  that 
she  must  be  willing  to  endure  a  fleeting  discomfort  for 
the  sake  of  art ;  so  she  put  on  the  jacket,  but  she  did  not 
look  as  happy  as  those  who  love  her  would  wish  to  see 
her  look.  I  focused  her  very  carefully,  bearing  in  mind 
the  precepts  of  a  distinguished  French  photographer 
who  focuses  a  trifle  out  of  the  sharpest  plane,  in  order 
to  avoid  the  necessity  of  retouching.  Then  I  told  her  to 
assume  a  pleasant  expression  and  look  natural.  I  gave 
rather  a  short  limit  to  the  exposure,  for  the  same  reason 
that  I  had  not  focused  sharply,  namely,  to  soften  the 
detail. 

148 


HOW    WE    BETRAY    THE    FOCUS. 


Portraits  ;  a  Confession 


The  plate  was  developed  with  pjro,  as  judiciously  as 
I  was  able  to  develop. 

The  negative  had  plenty  of  contrast,  but  was  lacking 
in  half-tones.  I  said  so  to  Jane.  She  replied  very 
justly :  "  Come  to  think  of  it,  there  were  no  half-tones 
to  take  except  in  the  face." 

It  was  true.  Jane's  black  hair  and  dark  brown  jacket 
•were  almost  merged  into  the  dark  green  background 
of  the  screen.  This  not  only  had  a  gloomy  effect,  it 
flattened  the  picture ;  there  was  no  relief,  such  as  a  light 
figure  on  a  dark  background  will  show.  If  I  had  taken 
the  pearl-gray  background  which  we  always  use  now 
(formerly  the  waterproof  covering  of  the  piano),  Jane's 
dark  hair  would  have  been  outlined  against  it ;  as  it  was, 
her  hair  melted  into  the  screen,  which  was  in  admirable 
focus  and  told  every  one  that  it  was  made  of  green  felt 
Nevertheless  I  liked  the  picture  and  took  it  home  with 
me ;  and  some  one  who  knows  Jane  picked  it  up  and 
said :  "  What  a  sweet,  pale,  sad  face !  Who — why,  it  is 
Mrs. ,  isn't  it?  But  how  ill  she  looks  I  " 

Now,  Jane  was  in  perfect  health  and  in  very  good 
spirits  at  the  time  ;  but  she  certainly  did  look  like  a  con- 
valescent sitting  up  for  the  first  time  after  a  long  illness. 

And  the  reason  was  the  dull  lighting  and  the  dark 
screen. 

We  never  used  the  screen  again.     But  it  could  have 
been  used  to  good  advantage  with  a  different  subject. 
149 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


Instead  of  the  green  screen  we  used  the  pearl-gray 
travelling  cloak  of  the  piano,  or  a  gray  horse  blanket. 
We  moved  our  background  well  back  to  put  it  out  of 
focus.  This  gives  depth  to  the  background  and  also 
softness.  We  try  to  get  on  the  right  side  of  the  sun  and 
use  a  sheet  and  a  clothes-horse  for  reflectors.  The  sun, 
striking  the  reflectors,  lights  the  side  of  the  face  opposite. 

An  alarming  feature  of  the  landscape  lens  is  its  short 
focus,  which  makes  such  uncomfortable  contrasts  be- 
tween people's  hands,  held  out  a  little  way  before  them, 
and  their  faces.  I  can  illustrate  better  by  the  full- 
length  picture  of  the  little  boy  and  girl  and  the  vignette 
than  by  description. 

We  had  this  difficulty,  among  others,  to  fight  in  the 
picture  of  Jane's  Sunday-school  class  on  the  plantation, 
which  is  here  given.  If  they  were  not  on  one  plane 
they  would  be  pygmies  and  giants  ;  if  they  were  on  one 
plane  they  would  be  unendurably  stiff.  We  did  the 
best  we  could  with  the  problem  by  putting  the  little 
children  to  the  fore.  Another  difficulty  was  even  worse ; 
the  mothers  would  expect  as  near  a  front  face  for  each 
child  as  could  be  put  into  a  picture ;  and  that  would  be 
a  wounded  spirit  whose  child  turned  a  profile  away, 
while  the  mother  of  a  child  who  turned  his  back  on  the 
camera  would  never  get  over  it  while  life  remained. 
And  they  were  obliged  to  look  at  the  sun,  yet  if  they 

looked  at  the  sun  they  would  squint  and  blink  !     Jane, 
150 


j 


Portraits  ;  a  Confession 


as  usual,  compromised  with  the  irresistible.  She  ar- 
ranged the  children.  The  mothers  said  it  was  "a 
mighty  pretty  picture,  and  it  favored  "  Tom,  Dick,  or 
Harry,  "  but  it  did  look  queer  to  see  the  children  look- 
ing down  that  way ;  it  would  be  a  heap  prettier  if  they 
were  looking  up,"  and  Tom,  Dick,  or  Harry  had  "  right 
nice  eyes ! " 

"  Well,"  Jane  said,  as  I  brought  her  the  first  print, 
"  it  does  not  look  like  the  stereotyped  portrait  group ; 
but  it  does  look  as  if  it  had  worked  awfully  hard  not 
to  look  like  it ! " 

Foliage  is  the  favorite  background  of  the  amateur,  I 
suppose  because  he  could  not  well  find  one  more  difficult 
to  manage  artistically. 

The  leaves  are  likely  either  to  be  a  mere  mussy  blur 
or  to  be  so  insistent  in  their  definition  that  they  distract 
attention  from  the  figure. 

It  is  supposed  that  the  dark  greenery  will  give  a  back- 
ground that  will  make  the  faces  better  lighted.  Faces, 
the  amateur  soon  finds,  are  dark  in  out-of-door  pictures. 
But  they  need  not  be  dark.  If  he  relieve  them  against 
an  azure  sky  they  cannot  very  well  be  anything  else,  but 
if  he  will  take  the  afternoon  light  and  a  side  sun,  with  a 
rock,  a  tree  trunk,  or  the  grass  for  his  background,  he 
will  have  no  trouble  with  his  complexions. 

Why  is  grass  neglected  as  a  background  ?  for  a  child's 

figure  especially  it  is  admirable.     It  is  not  busy  and  un- 
151 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


certain,  like  foliage ;  its  lovely  half-tints  and  broad  treat- 
ment (when  properly  focused,  which  means  when  not 
focused  sharply  or  stopped  down)  have  a  restful  soft- 
ness ;  it  demands  nothing  from  the  eye. 

An  umbrella  is  a  pretty  background  for  two  little 
heads.  But  do  not  risk  an  instantaneous  shutter  on 
an  umbrella  except  with  powerful  sunlight.  You  may 
bring  out  all  the  details  of  your  picture;  but  again  you 
may  not ;  and  if  you  have  not  plenty  of  time  and  plenty 
of  plates  and  plenty  of  patience,  it  is  not  advised  to  risk 
the  chance. 

We  do  not  say  that  foliage  may  not  be  used  most 
effectively.  Hundreds  of  examples  would  arise  to  con- 
fute such  a  rash  critic  as  the  maker  of  that  assertion. 
We  merely  confess  that  leafage  has  frequently  (in  our 
persons)  betrayed  the  heart  that  trusted  it. 

The  frontispiece,  however,  shows  Jane's  latest  por- 
trait, where  she  uses  a  tree  for  background  and  has 
successfully  overcome  the  difficulties. 

It  was  taken  late  in  the  afternoon,  on  an  orthochro- 
matic  plate  ;  and,  our  own  studio  not  being  just  then  in 
order,  it  was  developed  very  delicately  by  Mr.  Ilostletter 
of  Davenport.  The  composition  of  this  simple  picture 
took  over  an  hour.  Indeed,  we  have  spent  a  whole 
afternoon,  more  than  once,  composing  a  picture  which 
we  decided  was  not  worth  the  taking ;  and  have  gone 

home  without  a  mark  on  our  plates. 
152 


Portraits  ;  a  Confession 


The  larger  stops  are  better  for  portraits,  since  they 
give  truer  values.  In  a  portrait  the  figure  is  the  impres- 
sive part,  the  rest  should  be  subordinate. 

We  soon  found  that,  with  a  wide-angle  landscape  lens, 
small  figures  were  more  satisfactory  than  larger  ones. 
Unluckily,  the  mothers  of  our  dear  children — there  are 
three  mothers  to  the  five  children;  and  sometimes  we 
feel  that  the  proportion  of  mothers  to  be  pleased  to  chil- 
dren to  be  pictured  is  too  great! — all  crave  to  have  their 
children  as  nearly  life-size  on  the  cards  as  a  five-by-eight 
lens  can  manage.  This  has  led  to  rash  experiments. 
And  to  disappointment.  The  usual  result  of  portraits 
taken  by  a  landscape  lens  is  disappointment ;  and  our 
first  advice  to  an  amateur  intending  to  take  portraits  is, 
"  Don't  try  to  make  furniture  with  a  hatchet !  "  Buy  a 
portrait  lens,  or  keep  your  figures  within  the  limits  of 
the  best  work  of  your  lens. 

But  the  lens  is  the  simplest,  the  nearest,  step.  Beyond 
is  an  illimitable  vista  of  knowledge  to  be  acquired. 
There  is  the  whole  art  of  composition.  It  is  artlessly 
taught  by  some  of  the  professionals,  who  divide  pictures 
into  classes,  in  the  saw-and-hammer  carpenter  spirit. 
There  is  angular  composition,  and  there  is  pyramidical 
composition,  and  circular  composition,  in  the  same  man- 
ner as,  in  chiaro-oscuro,  there  are  the  technical  divisions, 
light,  half-light,  middle  tint,  half-dark,  and  dark;  and  the 
honest  man  believes  his  duty  done  if  he  can  get  his  com- 
153 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


position  into  one  of  the  classes  and  decide  which  light- 
ing he  will  take.  Generally  he  lights  his  sitters  very 
much  the  same  way.  One  man  will  recommend  putting 
the  lighted  side  of  the  face  against  the  dark  background, 
another  the  shadow,  and  it  is  only  the  rare  man  who  sees 
that  the  face  must  decide. 

The  contour  of  the  features,  particularly  the  nose,  is 
completely  changed  by  lighting.  In  a  three-quarter 
view,  as  the  photographers  call  it,  if  the  broad  side  of 
the  face  be  in  shadow  the  nose  is  straighter  than  if  the 
shadow  fall  on  the  smaller  side.  The  same  face,  also, 
will  seem  broader  with  the  smaller  side  shaded  than 
with  the  larger  side  partially  in  shadow.  A  professional 
photographer  in  a  country  town  said  frankly,  "  Well,  I 
ain't  got  much  use  for  these  artists.  They  talk  and  talk, 
and  they  show  pictures  lit  up  splendidly,  and  mighty 
handsome  just  as  pictures ;  but  they  don't  please  the  sit- 
ters. And  easy  to  see  why  !  What  folks  want  in  photo- 
graphs is  to  look  just  like  themselves,  only  a  heap  better 
looking !  And  these  artistic  photographs  make  them 
look  a  heap  worse.  When  a  feller  comes  in  to  get  a 
picture  took  for  his  girl,  he  ain't  going  to  like  it  if  his 
nose  is  crooked  to  make  a  striking  lighting!  'Tain't  in 
nature  he  should,  neither !  " 

The  photographer  is  between  the  two  fires,  his  impe- 
rious art  ideals  and  his  more  imperious  sitters  who  want 

pretty  pictures.     I  confess  a  sneaking  sympathy  with 
154 


Portraits  ;  a  Confession 

the  sitters.  Have  I  not  seen  impressionist  portraits  of 
beautiful  children,  that  struck  me  as  about  the  ugliest 
caricatures  ever  sold  for  a  great  price?  At  the  same 
time  the  average  "retouched"  photograph,  with  its  inane 
smoothness  and  artificial  youthfulness,  would  strike  us 
as  ghastly  did  we  not  see  it  so  often  that  our  sensibilities 
are  Hunted.  A  middle-aged  woman,  in  a  photograph  by 
the  photographer  intent  only  on  pleasing,  looks  like  her- 
self painted  to  disguise  her  wrinkles.  The  photograph 
gives  a  positively  painful  impression,  akin  to  the  impres- 
sion my  worthy  friend  would  give  were  she  to  appear 
enamelled  and  powdered  and  dyed  into  a  fictitious  girl- 
hood. 

I  asked  a  professional  photographer  of  my  acquaint- 
ance, a  young  man  with  artistic  ideals,  a  hard  student 
and  an  enthusiastic  worker,  how  he  contrived  to  please 
his  sitters  and  to  satisfy  his  artistic  conscience  ? 

"  I  cfowV,"  he  answered ;  "  I  do  what  the  sitters  want, 
and  then  make  the  best  job  I  can  out  of  it 

"  But,"  he  added,  thoughtfully,  "  I  believe  a  sitter  has 
a  right  to  be  taken  at  his  best;  the  trouble  is,  he  usually 
doesn't  know  what  will  give  the  best  of  him,  and  what 
he  insists  on  in  position  or  lighting  is  more  likely  than 
not  to  play  the  very  mischief." 

The  best  works  for  the  amateur  within  our  knowledge 
are  Robinson's  "  Pictorial  Effect  in  Photography  "  and 

"Wilson's  Photographies." 

155 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

They  are  likely  to  reveal  such  immeasurable  possi- 
bilities that  he  will  be  warned  in  time. 

If  he  shall  not  be,  he  can  have  no  trustier  guides. 

It  may  seem  both  presumptuous  and  superfluous  to 
offer  our  little  dribble  of  knowledge  obtained  by  expe- 
rience, at  the  same  time  that  we  direct  him  to  these 
fountain-heads ;  but  from  just  these  minute  streams 
there  is  forming  a  river  of  practical  knowledge  for  the 
amateur. 

A  few  little  points  have  come  to  us  in  portraiture, 
not  novel,  but  useful.  They  are  submitted  with  hu- 
mility. 

Stout  people  take  better  (that  is,  thinner)  pictures 
standing,  a  standing  position  making  their  necks 
longer;  for  the  same  reason  a  thin  subject  should  be 
seated. 

When  taking  the  whole  figure,  a  three-quarters  view 
gives  better  results  than  a  full  view. 

The  hands  are  almost  as  full  of  character  as  the  face, 
and  should  be  as  carefully  treated. 

Unless  the  amateur  have  a  studio  with  a  skylight.it  is 
of  advantage  for  him  to  take  his  subject  out-doors. 

Orthocliromatic  plates  are  much  the  best  plates  for 
portraits. 

Unless  he  have  a  portrait  lens,  a  teachable  spirit, 
some  previous  knowledge  of  art,  and  exceeding  pa- 

156 


Portraits  ;  a  Confession 


tience,   it  is  better  for  him  not   to  attempt   portraiture 
at  all. 

That  is  our  confession.* 

*  I  have  said  nothing  about  retouching.  It  is  a  branch  by  itself. 
If  the  amateur  have,  as  one  of  us  has,  a  smattering  of  knowledge  of 
figure  drawing,  he  will  find  retouching  a  simple  matter,  especially  on 
unvarnished  films.  For  a  retouching  medium,  a  little  gum  camphor 
dissolved  in  Venice  turpentine  (the  proportions  are  not  of  vital 
importance,  they  regulate  themselves  ;  when  the  mixture  is  thin 
enough  to  rub  on  easily  it  will  be  right)  will  do  all  that  one  can  ask. 
And  both  landscapes  and  portraits  can  be  helped  by  judicious,  slight 
retouching.  Excessive  retouching  is  baneful  anywhere  and  always. 
Any  retouching  is  a  confession  of  failure. 

A  few  pencils,  some  Gihon's  opaque,  some  neutral  tint  and  Chinese 
white,  with  a  magnifying  handglass  such  as  most  people  have  in  the 
house  to  inspect  photographs,  are  all  the  necessary  paraphernalia  for 
slight  retouching.  And  much  retouching  we  hold  to  be  a  wrong  to 
the  negative.  So  we  do  not  so  much  as  allude  to  a  retouching  desk ; 
because  there  is  in  the  credulous  spirit  of  the  beginner  in  amateur 
photography,  a  blind  yearning  to  buy  things  ;  and  we  could  never 
forgive  ourselves  were  any  word  of  ours  to  encourage  this  pernicious 
craving, 


157 


CHAPTER  IX 

TRICKS 

THERE  is  a  current  phrase — '•  with  the  merciless  fidel- 
ity of  a  photograph."  It  shows  how  much  most  people, 
especially  most  writing  people,  know  about  a  photo- 
graph. A  photograph  begins  to  lie  the  instant  it  can 
stand  on  its  legs — that  is,  its  tripod's  legs.  The  lens  is 
an  unconscionable  liar ;  its  wide  angle  was  given  it  to 
lie.  The  negative  lies,  for  even  orthochromatic  plates  do 
not  give  the  exact  truth  in  color  values,  and  no  plates, 
of  course,  give  the  colors  of  nature.  And  when  it  gets 
along  in  its  career  to  the  printing  period,  there  are 
almost  no  bounds  to  be  placed  to  the  falsehoods  of  the 
photograph.  You  can  "print in  "  pretty  much  anything 
you  like.  One  day  we  amused  ourselves  by  introducing 
snow-capped  hills  into  our  flat  forests.  Nothing  could 
be  easier,  supposing  the  photographer  to  be  a  dabbler 
in  art  to  the  slightest  degree.  We  cut  out  of  paper  the 
outline  of  hills,  pasted  it  on  the  glass  side  of  the  nega- 
tive, moistened  the  paper,  and  with  the  finger  rubbed 
away  the  fibre  at  the  base  of  the  hills  so  that  the  tree- 
tops  and  part  of  the  sky  should  print  through  the  opaque 

surface  of  the  paper,  softened  the  outlines  by  the  same 
158 


Tricks 

trick,  and,  lo !  "  With  verdure  clad  the  hills  appear,  de- 
lightful to  the  ravished  sense  !  " 

If  you  have  a  figure  that  you  like,  in  a  landscape 
that  you  don't  like,  you  can  (unless  the  figure  should 
be  lighted  from  the  opposite  side,  which  may  happen) 
print  your  figure  into  the  landscape  that  you  consider 
best  for  it  This  is  not  easy,  but  with  considerable 
practice  it  can  be  done  so  neatly  that  it  shall  deceive 
the  very  elect. 

Whether  it  is  worth  doing  is  another  question.  We 
don't  think  it  is. 

The  manner  in  which  we  do  it,  when  we  are  so  aban- 
doned by  our  artistic  guardian  angel  as  to  do  it  at  all, 
is  to  first  trace  on  thick  writing  paper  laid  over  the  fig- 
ure negative  the  exact  image  of  the  figure  itself. 

We  then  cut  out  this  image  with  exactest  care  and  a 
sharp,  sharp  knife.  (Don't  try  to  mangle  it  with  the 
scissors.)  We  have  the  sheet  of  paper  large  enough  to 
cover  the  entire  negative;  thus,  when  the  figure  is  cut 
out,  there  remains  a  mask  of  the  landscape. 

Now  we  take  a  landscape  and  dispose  this  blank 
paper  figure  in  any  position  that  we  like.  Having 
painted  it  black  or  red,  or  any  non-actinic  color,  we 
paste  it  on  the  back  of  the  landscape,  and  print  the 
landscape  itself  in  the  usual  way.  There  will  come 
out  of  the  printing  frame  a  landscape  wherein  stands, 
or  sits,  a  clear  white  figure.  Now  the  second  mask 
159 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


comes  into  requisition.  The  printed  paper  is  laid 
against  the  film  of  the  first  landscape,  and  the  blank 
white  figure  is  fitted  with  extremest  nicety  to  the  figure 
in  the  landscape,  while  the  second  mask,  having  been 
painted  like  the  first,  is  fixed  firmly  over  the  glass  side 
of  the  negative.  The  only  thing  that  can  print  is  the 
central  figure,  which  prints  accordingly.  It  is  about  a 
hundred  to  one  that  you  will  not  cut  the  printed-in  fig- 
ure-mask exactly,  and  that,  in  consequence,  portions  of 
ground  or  shrubbery  or  some  one  else's  clothes  will 
stick  (like  a  weird  coat  of  tar  and  feathers)  to  the 
outline  of  the  figure,  or  that  you  will  have  sliced  off 
too  much  of  him,  or  her,  with  quite  as  undesirable 
results;  but  if  you  have  not  done  either  of  these  wrong 
things,  and  have  not  pasted  him  on  crooked  nor  lighted 
him  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  that  he  has  "  another 
sun  than  ours,"  nor  printed  him  too  dark  or  too  light, 
nor  printed  the  landscape  in  any  slightest  respect  differ- 
ently from  the  figure — if  you  have,  in  short,  made  a 
perfect  piece  of  work  of  it,  the  figure  will  look  as  if  it 
belonged  to  the  landscape.  On  the  whole,  taking 
everything  into  account,  perhaps  your  pathway  through 
life  will  be  less  beset  with  briers,  and  your  moral  nature 
will  blossom  and  bourgeon  in  better  shape,  if  you  let 
combination-figure  printing  alone. 

The  commonest  form  of  combination  printing  is  the 
printing-in    clouds.      There   are    two   ways   of    doing 
160 


Tricks 

this,  both  greatly  prized  by  professional  printers,  both 
villanously  abused.  One  is  to  decorate  the  glass  side 
of  the  negative,  that  it  may  dissemble  and  pretend  to  be 
filled  with  clouds ;  the  other,  to  make  a  regular  cloud 
negative,  and  print  in  the  sky.  Of  course,  only  the 
latter  belongs  properly  to  combination  printing.  But 
the  amateur  in  search  of  •'  wrinkles  "  will  forgive  my 
treating  of  both  methods  of  giving  a  skyless  negative 
a  sky,  here. 

Burton  suggests  yet  a  third  method  of  improving  the 
sky,  although  it  gives  no  clouds.  It  is  simply  to  shade 
the  lower  part  of  the  sky  more  than  the  upper,  thus 
making  the  lower  part  print  more  slowly,  which  will 
necessarily  make  it  a  diffused  lighter  tint  than  the 
other,  and  give  a  cloudless  but  shaded  sky,  such  as  is 


often  seen.  To  do  this,  after  the  print  is  made,  it  is 
laid  under  a  glass,  flat,  on  the  place  for  printing,  and  a 
book  or  some  heavy  object  is  placed  on  the  glass,  on 
which  (the  book)  is  laid  a  sheet  of  cardboard*  The 
book  conceals  the  landscape  portion  of  the  print,  and 

the  cardboard  shades  the  sky. 
11  161 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

The  cut  above  will  explain  ;  it  is  copied  from  Burton's 
"Photographic  Printing.'' 

"A  is  the  sheet  of  glass  with  the  print  under  it ;  B  is 
the  book,  or  similar  object ;  and  C  is  the  piece  of  card- 
board. Of  course,  printing  must  be  performed  in  dif- 
fused light.  Care  must  be  taken  to  allow  C  to  project 
so  far  beyond  the  book  that  the  front  edge  of  the  latter 
will  not  cause  an  abrupt  mark  on  the  print." 

But  we  have  had  as  good  if  not  better  results  from 
printing  the  negative  shaded  by  a  thick  cardboard  in 
the  position  of  the  diagram.  A  is  the  shading  card- 
board, B  is  the  negative  in  an  ordinary  printing  frame, 
C  C  are  supports  to  keep  A  in  position.  The  reader  will 
kindly  excuse  the  geometric  formality  and  meagreness 
of  the  diagram ;  it  is  caused  by  the  inability  of  the 
present  illustrator  to  wrestle  with  the  intricacies  of  per- 
spective involved  in  a  presentment  in  full  of  the  shapes 
of  the  printing  frame,  the  cardboard,  and  the  supports. 


To  "return  to  the  two  cloud  "stand-bys"'  of  the  pro- 
fession. The  decorator  of  the  glass  sometimes  takes  a 
burning  match  and  smudges  a  little,  sometimes  he  dabs 


162 


Tricks 

in  a  few  cumuli  with  opaque,  sometimes  he  pastes  tissue 
paper  over  the  original  sky  and  with  a  crayon  stub 
sketches  any  kind  of  sky  that  he  wishes — or  can  sketch  ! 
Sometimes  he  considers  the  direction  of  the  sun  in  the 
picture,  more  times  he  does  not.  And  nothing  is  rarer 
than  for  him  to  consider  the  harmony  between  his  sky 
and  his  picture ;  the  consequence  is  that  most  profes- 
sional skies  have  a  labored  air. 

The  commoner  way,  however,  to  get  the  sky  into  a 
picture,  is  to  take  a  sky  negative,  or  two  or  three,  and 
to  print  them  into  every  landscape  that  has  no  sky.  The 
clouds  are  well  developed  and  usually  look  thunderous. 
They  make  the  picture  look  top-heavy.  The  subtle 
harmony  between  lighting,  atmosphere,  and  sky  is  not 
given  a  thought ;  but  it  is  not  slighted  for  nothing ;  it 
always  has  its  revenge. 

We  made  some  cloud  negatives,  and  we  printed  them 
into  our  pictures  without  particular  technical  difficulty. 
We  found  that  our  easiest  plan  was  to  shade  lower  part 
of  cloud  negative,  to  print  from  it  first,  and  to  sim- 
ply lay  the  print  from  the  cloud  negative  over  the  land- 
scape negative,  and  print  into  it.  We  took  care  to  have 
our  clouds  high  enough  not  to  interfere  too  much  with 
our  tree-tops.  We  developed  the  clouds  to  make  a  thin, 
easily  printed  negative,  and  we  used  for  the  other  a 
dense  negative  with  a  white  sky ;  and  there  were  no 
clouds  visible  out  of  the  sky  and  plenty  in  the  sky.  Of 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


course,  one  can  go  to  the  trouble  of  masking  his  land- 
scape and  of  blocking  out  the  landscape-tinted  sky  with 
Bates's  varnish,  but  beyond  the  consciousness  of  having 
obeyed  the  doctors  and  the  approval  of  his  conscience, 
and  very  probably  some  white  lines  where  the  maskings 
have  not  quite  fitted,  he  will  gain  little. 

Technically  speaking,  our  cloud  printing  was  very 
decent;  artistically,  it  rubbed  our  nerves  the  wrong  way. 
Be  as  careful  as  we  might  about  our  lighting,  consider 
as  we  might  the  character  of  our  scene,  read  as  we 
might,  evening  after  evening,  canons  of  art  on  skies, 
somehow  our  skies  never  seemed  to  belong  to  our  land. 

Two  years  ago  we  promised  each  other  that  we  would 
give  our  entire  attention  to  getting  the  very  own  original 
sky  of  each  scene  on  to  the  plate,  in  the  first  place,  and 
out  on  the  negative,  in  the  second ;  and  eschew  cloud 
printing-in  and  cloud  negatives,  forevermore. 

We  have  never  regretted  that  day.  To  our  mind, 
the  very  best  way  to  get  clouds  into  the  print  is  to 
take  them  there  with  the  lens,  and  to  fix  them  there 
with  the  developer,  and  to  arrest  them,  should  they  flee, 
with  the  reducer. 

It  is  too  great  a  responsibility  to  invent  a  sky. 

Vignetting  can  hardly  be  called  a  "  trick "  with  jus- 
tice; it  is  not  a  deceiver  any  more  than  those  kindly 
and  wise  people  are  deceivers  who  are  silent  about  their 

neighbors'  faults.     The  vignette  tells  the  truth,  but  not 
164 


Tricks 

the  whole  truth  ;  and  thereby  often  vastly  improves  the 
print 

Vignetting  is  one  of  the  most  charming  photographic 
operations.  Neither  is  it  very  difficult.  It  does  Dot 
require  a  special  "store  vignetter,"  although  one  is  con- 
venient; vignettes  for  landscapes  can  be  made  of  any 
size  or  shape,  out  of  brown  cardboard  and  tissue  paper; 
and  they  will  give  as  good  soft  vignetting  as  expensive 
glasses. 

The  very  simplest  form  of  vignetter  is  shown  in  the 
diagram  below.  A  a  is  the  printing  frame,  B  b  is  the 
piece  of  stiff  brown  cardboard  tacked  tightly  down  on 
to  the  printing  frame — for  we  do  not  want  any  stray 
interloping  light  coming  in  through  the  back  yard — C  c 
is  the  opening  in  the  cardboard  for  the  vignette. 


The  higher  the  vignetter  is  lifted  from  the  glass  of  the 
negative  in  the  frame,  the  more  gradual  the  vignette. 
A  good  way  is  to  tack  several  thicknesses  of  cardboard 
on  the  printing  frame,  tack  the  vignette  board  on  them, 
and  paste  black  paper,  such  as  comes  with  bromide  and 
platinotype  papers  and  is  plentiful  in  every  studio,  over 
the  board  and  frame,  to  exclude  all  light  not  invited. 

Amateurs  do  not  take  the  interest  in  vignetting  that 
165 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

the  beauty  of  the  results  and  the  flexible  and  tractable 
nature  of  the  process  deserve. 

They  imagine  that  vignetting  is  an  immense  bother 
(which  it  is  at  first),  and  that  it  continues  to  be  a  bother 
to  the  end  of  the  story  (which  it  does  not),  and  they 
will  have  none  of  it. 

But  vignetting  soon  becomes  a  simple  operation. 
The  vignetter,  once  adjusted  to  a  frame,  can  be  used, 
without  the  least  attention,  to  make  innumerable  prints. 
And  by  using  a  larger  printing  frame  than  the  nega- 
tive, placing  the  negative  in  a  carrier,  vignettes  can  be 
printed  (by  the  blue  print  and  platinotype  process  of 
sensitizing)  directly  on  cards,  thus  escaping  all  the 
annoyances  of  mounting. 

The  composite  photograph  is  an  amusing  trick  with  a 
faint  echo  of  scientific  interest  about  it.  We  have  unin- 
tentionally produced  composites  both  of  landscapes  and 
people,  but  have  never  tried  it  in  earnest.  Neither  did 
we  ever  attempt  to  depict  a  doppelganger.  According 
to  the  directions  of  Mr.  Adee,  it  can  be  done  (and  he 
says  easily  done)  by  the  use  of  an  "opaque  half  screen, 
before  or  behind  the  lens,  so  arranged  that  two  succes- 
sive exposures  can  be  made  on  the  same  plate,  first  on 
one  half,  then  on  the  other." 

Ghosts  we  have  photographed.  They  are  the  easiest 
of  all  tricks.  Your  ghost  is  dressed  in  any  spectral 
fashion  you  prefer ;  he  is  posed,  and  taken  before  some 


Tricks 

solid  article  of  furniture.  Then  he  goes  away,  and  a 
trifle  longer  exposure  is  given  to  the  scene,  printing 
firmly  the  furniture,  which  will  show  through  the 
ghostly  figure.  It  requires  no  apparatus,  and  is  taken 
and  developed  like  any  picture. 

I  propose  to  put  the  mounting  of  photographs  in  this 
chapter  for  two  reasons.  One  is,  that  the  whole  prov- 
ince of  photography  does  not  contain  a  process  more 
crammed  with  tricks,  invariably  of  a  malign  nature, 
than  just  this  very  mounting  of  prints;  the  other  is, 
that  I  have  no  other  place  in  the  book  left  for  it 

Before  a  print  is  mounted  you  have  to  trim  it.  Per- 
haps you  think  that  is  easy.  There  is  where  we  differ. 
Perhaps  you  suppose  that  if  you  take  a  ruler  and  a  lead 
pencil  and  mark  a  line  on  a  print,  and  cut  that  lead 
pencil  line  with  a  scissors,  you  will  cut  your  print 
straight  and  true.  Many  educated  and  sensible  per- 
sons, many  noble  and  brave  men,  many  sweet  and 
unselfish  women,  have  thought  the  very  same  thing 
before  you ;  and  they  have  said  words  that  they  ought 
not  to  have  said,  and  gone  into  tempers  into  which  they 
ought  not  to  have  gone,  when  they  found  out  their 
mistake. 

You  will  seem  to  have  cut  a  straight  line ;  but  unless 

you  have  a  very  large  pair  of  shears  and  smite  the  paper 

in  twain  with  one  smite,  there  will  be  a  tiny  waviness 

of  line  that  your  reason  tells  you  will  never  be  noticed  ; 

167 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 

but  youi  eyes  and  everybody  else's  eyes  will  tell  just  the 
contrary — after  the  line  gets  on  the  card.  The  only 
sure  way  I  know  is  to  take  a  carpenter's  square,  lay  the 
print  on  glass,  and  cut  with  a  sharp  knife  by  the  square, 
or  mark  with  a  lead  pencil  by  the  square,  and  cut  with 
the  shears.  But  if  you  take  the  shears,  you  may  perish 
by  the  shears,  for  a  hair's-breadth  of  turning  will  show. 
The  knife  is  safe.  Having  trimmed  the  prints,  you  take 
those  that  you  have  not  ruined  in  successive  trimmings, 
and  mount  them.  Albumen,  bromide,  and  platinotype 
prints  are  not  all  mounted  in  the  same  way,  as  we  dis- 
covered when  we  wet  the  bromide  print  in  which  we 
took  pride,  and  laid  it  face  downward  on  the  glass. 
There  it  remained,  or  at  least  the  greater  portion  ;  we 
peeled  some  of  the  film  off!  Albumen  and  platinotype 
prints,  having  a  hard  surface,  may  be  wet  and  laid  in  a 
pile  on  glass,  or  preferably  on  white  oilcloth,  smeared 
one  by  one  with  the  paste,  and,  as  fast  as.  smeared,  placed 
on  the  card  ready  for  them. 

It  sounds  so  easy,  doesn't  it?  In  theory,  the  print  is 
placed  in  the  centre  of  the  card,  and  remains  there  to 
be  smoothed  or  rolled  by  the  operator;  and  then  it  is 
placed  under  a  weight  to  dry.  In  actual  fact  the  print, 
though  placed  in  the  centre,  slips  somehow  askew. 
What  it  is  aiming  to  do  is  to  slip  unperceived,  so  that  it 
may  be  pressed  down,  and  the  operator  will  be  deceived 

until  he  holds  it  up  to  look ;  and  then  he  will  have  to 
168 


Tricks 

soak  it  off  with  infinite  labor,  and  it  will  go  on  wrong 
again,  and  he  will  get  "rattled,"  and  the  paper,  because 
of  so  much  soaking  and  pulling  about,  will  tear  viciously, 
and  the  end  of  these  sorrows  will  be  a  ruined  print!  If 
you  mark  the  exact  middle  of  your  card  and  two  dots 
where  the  middle  of  your  print  must  go,  you  will  a  little 
decrease  the  risks  of  mounting. 

After  the  print  is  safely  placed  in  the  middle  of  the 
mount,  it  is  either  rolled  with  a  convenient  little  roller, 
which  you  can  buy  of  the  dealers,  or  it  is  smoothed  with 
a  rag  and  the  hand.  The  wee-est,  most  unobtrusive 
grain  of  paste,  that  is  not  big  enough  to  be  called  a 
lump,  is  big  enough  to  show  and  disturb  the  level  of  the 
paper.  The  paste,  unless  very  thin,  rolls  up  in  waves 
and  makes  bubbles  and  mischief  generally ;  if  very 
thin  it  will  not  stick,  and  the  corners  will  curl  off  the 
paper. 

But,  usually,  the  roller  will  roll  most  of  these  an- 
noyances away. 

No  roller,  however,  will  make  the  cardboard  dry  at 
the  same  pace  as  the  print,  and  no  weight  will  keep  a 
cockling  paper  straight  after  it  has  been  taken  off.  We 
put  a  small  brickyard  on  top  of  some  boards  holding 
down  albumen  prints,  once,  and  the  day  after  they  came 
out  of  the  brickyard  they  were  as  lively  as  before,  and 
twisted  themselves  into  concaves  before  twenty-four 
hours  were  past. 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


I  lay  before  the  reader  a  number  of  mountants  of 
great  pretensions,  with  the  hope  that  they  will  treat  him 
better  than  they  have  us.  The  only  stratagem  that 
worked  well  in  our  hands  was  to  wet  both  cards  and 
prints  equally  wet— that  is,  soak  them  both.  They  then 
dry  with  something  like  an  equal  contraction.  Bromide 
prints  do  not  cockle  like  albumen,  being  only  wet  on  the 
back,  and  platinotype  prints  are  a  pleasure  to  mount. 
So  are  blue  prints. 

The  aristotype  is  the  slipperiest  dodger  of  them 
all. 

It  cannot  be  handled  recklessly,  for  it  tears  more  eas- 
ily than  the  albumen — which  is  not  necessary  in  order 
to  be  troublesome;  it  cannot  be  laid  face  downward  on 
the  glass,  wet,  lest  it  never  come  away ;  it  must  be  dry 
on  one  side  and  be  brushed  with  an  alcohol  mountant, 
which  dries  with  frantic  speed ;  so  that  wherever  it  is 
laid  on  the  card,  there  it  must  stay  !  There  is  no  second 
opportunity  for  the  aristotype.  However,  we  have 
soaked  it  off  with  warm  water,  and  nothing  in  the  shape 
of  an  awful  warning  has  happened  to  us.  The  alcohol 
mountant  is  truly  the  discourager  of  hesitancy,  but  it 
has  great  virtues;  among  which  stands  high  its  com- 
parative freedom  from  cockling.  If  it  can  have  a  dry 
print  to  mount,  the  cockling  will  be  hardly  perceptible; 
but  no  mountautcan  see  a  soaked  albumen  print  through 

the  press  in  safety,  entirely  unwarped. 
190 


Tricks 

FORMULAE. 
To  KEEP  UNMOUNTED  ALBUMEN  PRJNTS  FLAT. 

Soak  them  in  equal  parts  of  alcohol,  glycerine,  and  water  ;  dry 
between  blotting  paper  under  slight  pressure. 

SOLUTION  FOR  MOUNTING  PRINTS  WITHOUT  THEIR  COCKLIXC. 

Nelson's  No.  1  photographic  gelatine 4  ounces. 

Water ...    16  ounces. 

Glycerine 1  ounce. 

Alcohol 5  ounces. 

Dissolve  the  gelatine   in   the  water,  then  add  the  glycerine,  and 
lastly  the  alcohol. 

PERMANENT  PASTE. 

Arrowroot 10  Gin. 

Water 100  Gm. 

in  which  1  gram  of  gelatine  has  been  soaked,   and  boil.      After 
cooling  add  10  grams  of  alcohol  and  a  few  drops  of  carbolic  acid. 


171 


CHAPTER  X 

TO   AMATEURS    ONLY 

WHETHER  it  come  from  the  chastening  influences  of 
their  art  (which  can  be  warranted  to  subdue  a  larger 
acreage  of  vanity  to  the  individual  than  any  other,  un- 
less it  be  literature  in  the  early  days  of  authorship,  when 
the  author  is  being  introduced  to  the  "  readers  "  of  the 
magazines),  or  whether  it  be  due  to  the  natural  attrac- 
tion of  photography  for  choice  spirits,  amateur  photog- 
raphers, for  the  most  part,  are  amiable,  modest,  and 
engaging  people.  They  have  none  of  the  hysteric  sen- 
sitiveness of  the  artist  soul  in  the  avowed  arts — music, 
painting,  or  the  drama,  for  instance.  They  do  not  spat- 
ter the  pages  of  the  photographic  journals  with  spite, 
thinly  masquerading  as  sarcasm  ;  rather,  they  exchange 
formulae  and  "  wrinkles  "  like  brothers.  They  praise 
each  other's  pictures,  and,  outside  of  the  "  naturalistic  " 
school,  they  do  not  feel  themselves  better  than  the 
rest  of  the  world.  They  only  feel  themselves  a  lit- 
tle better  than  the  kodak  and  hand -camera  persons, 
who  are,  no  doubt,  very  well  in  their  way,  but  whose 
way  is  not  theirs,  as  the  all-wool  coat  said  to  the  linsey- 
woolsey. 

172 


To  Amateurs  Only 


It  has  been  a  pleasure  to  .Jane  and  me,  who  have 
never  felt  that  we  knew  enough  to  write  to  the  photo- 
graphic journals,  to  add  our  homely  record  of  experi- 
ences to  the  multitude  that  will  claim  your  attention, 
comrades  of  the  camera. 

I  fear,  however,  that  it  is  a  little  with  me  as  it  was 
with  the  unfortunate  Irishman  who  was  sent  to  dose  the 
pony.  He  was  given  a  bolus,  and  a  tube  through  which 
he  was  to  administer  it.  Presently  he  returned,  very 
dejected. 

"Well,  Pat,"  says  his  mistress,  "did  you  give  the 
pony  his  medicine  ?  " 

"  Shure,  an'  I  did,  me  lady." 

•"  Has  it  done  him  any  good  ?  " 

"  Sorra  a  bit,  me  lady." 

"  Why,  Pat,  how  is  that?  " 

"  Well,  me  lady,  it  come  this  way.  I  put  the  stuff 
in  the  thing  yez  given  me  like  yez  towld  me,  and  I 
put  it  in  the  crater's  mouth,  intinding  to  blow  it 
down  him,  and  I  got  all  ready ;  but,  bad  cess  to  him, 
the  baste  breathed  first,  an'  it  wint  down  me  instead  of 
him !  " 

I  have  some  compunctions  lest  most  of  the  practical 
photographic  medicine  that  I  have  collected  will  benefit 
only  the  collector.  Nevertheless,  I  shall  venture  to  add 
to  it  a  very  few  precepts  drawn  from  our  own  grapple 

with  the  powers  of  light — and  darkness. 
173 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


It  is  as  true  of  the  photographic  world  as  of  the  uni- 
verse, that  which  quaint  old  Jeremy  said  two  centuries 
ago :  "  All  parts  of  the  scheme  are  eternally  chasing 
each  other  like  the  parts  of  a  fugue !  " 

But  one  motif  continually  recurs;  it  is  the  motif  of 
beauty  or  }f  art  (but  what  is  art  save  the  effort  to 
realize  beauty  ?),  and  it  persists  through  every  stage  in 
the  making  of  a  sun-picture.  There  are  those  who  will 
have  it  that  the  instant  the  photographer  slips  the  black 
slide  before  the  invisible  picture  on  the  plate,  the  work 
of  the  artist  is  over ;  the  remainder  is  pure  technique, 
clever  artisanship,  not  art. 

Comrades,  don't  believe  them  !  It  does  not  ask  the 
same  kind  of  insight,  or  so  high  a  gift  of  selection, 
to  balance  the  negative  properly  in  its  development,  to 
secure  soft  tones,  and  varied  harmonies  of  chiaro-oscuro, 
and  luminous  perspective,  as  it  does  to  compose  a  pict- 
ure. Neither,  I  will  admit,  are  the  masters  of  style  to 
be  permitted  to  sit  in  the  presence  of  the  "makers,"  the 
poets  and  the  seers  ;  but  the  master  of  style  must  needs 
be  an  artist,  and  a  true  one!  There  was  never,  since 
the  world  began,  a  perfect  artisan  who  had  not  some 
touch  of  the  artist's  soul  within  him.  There  was  never 
a  photographer  who  could  bring  out  all  the  marvellous, 
delicate  loveliness  that  the  sun  etches  on  a  gelatine  film, 
who  had  not  the  artist's  intuition.  He  may  not  know  a 

phrase  of  the  gabble  of  the  schools,  he  may  not  be  able 
174 


To  Amateurs  Only 


to  tell  a  copy  from  an  "important"  work,  but  the  robe 
of  our  Lady  of  joys  and  sorrows,  will  have  brushed  his 
ignorant  eyes  all  the  same ;  unwittingly,  perhaps,  he 
follows  after  her. 

Nor  can  he  part  company  with  her  in  the  further 
mechanical  processes  of  his  craft.  He  needs  must  have 
some  help  from  her  in  his  printing  as  well  as  his  devel- 
oping ;  although  printing  is  vastly  more  mechanical 
than  developing.  I  don't  think  he  need  bother  her  to 
stay  through  the  mounting  process,  which  is  quite  as 
much  a  matter  of  paste  as  of  eye,  and  as  much  a  matter 
of  hand  as  of  either,  and  in  a  better  regulated  world  (say 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  ideal  sphere,  where  health  is  catching 
instead  of  disease !)  will  undoubtedly  be  done  entirely 
by  machinery. 

Believing  these  things,  comrades,  and  being  ourselves 
merely  honest  artisans  (Jane  insists  on  the  plural  pro- 
noun, although,  in  candor,  I  think  she  gets  an  occasional 
swish  of  the  Lady's  robes,  herself ! ),  we  nevertheless 
strive  to  be  artists,  just  as  good  Christians  strive  to  be 
perfect,  even  though  they  are  sure  (except  in  the  Meth- 
odist Church)  that  they  can't  be! 

And  the  practical  rules  of  life  that  we  follow  are: 

I.  Before  you  go  out  with  your  camera,  decide  what 

kind  of  a  picture  you  will  take.     Determine  rather  to 

take  one  view  that  will  satisfy  your  conscience,  than 

eight  or  ten  or  whatever  the  number  of  plates  you  can 

175 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


carry,  that  are  hastily  composed  and  by  consequence 
poor. 

II.  Use  a  glass  plate,  and  in  most  cases  a  slow  plate, 
for  landscape  work.     If  you  take  animals  other  than  the 
tranquil    cow,  you   may   require   quick   plates  and  the 
shutter.     That  will  be  your  misfortune,  not  your  fault. 

III.  Be  infinitely  careful  about  dust!     This  is  tech- 
nique, but  so  is  the  mixing  of  colors,  and  it  counts  as 
much.     Wipe  out  your  bellows  with  a  damp  cloth,  and 
wipe  your  lens  with  a  dry  silk  cloth.     Keep  your  plates 
in  your  bag  until  you  expose  them,  and  your  bag  off  the 
ground,  for   you   must   be   as  watchful  of  damp  as  of 
dust. 

IV.  In  the    field,  plant   your  camera  firmly.      You 
cannot  keep  it  firm  on  a  windy  day,  neither  can  you  use 
a  slow  plate,  and  your  foliage  will  be  "  mussy  "  even 
with  the  shutter ;  therefore,  never  take  photographs  on  a 
windy  day.     There  is  enough   irritation  and  vexation 
and  humiliation  about  the  business  without  hunting  all 
three  in  a  pack  ! 

Y.  Having  composed  as  well  as  your  natural  limita- 
tions and  ignorance  will  tolerate,  focus  according  to  the 
scene.  If  you  wish  to  direct  attention  to  one  particular 
point  and  to  gently  obliterate  or  send  to  the  dim  back- 
ground all  other  points,  focus  on  the  important  object 
through  a  large  stop.  If  you  would  have  the  eye  explore 

the  whole  landscape,  and  wish  nothing  slighted,  use  the 
176 


To  Amateurs  Only 


small  stops.     The  smaller  the  stop,  the  deeper  the  focus 
as  well  as  the  sharper  the  definition. 

VI.  Do  not  focus  through  jour    largest  diaphragm, 
and  then  put  another  stop  in  and  expose  the  picture, 
without  focusing  again  through  the  smaller  stop.     You 
may  have  reason  to  change  the  focus  with  the  small 
stop. 

There  is  a  whole  battlefield  beyond  this  question  of 
focusing.  Dr.  Emerson  has  said  some  of  the  most  pene- 
trating things  about  photography  in  its  relation  to  art, 
that  ever  have  been  said;  but  there  remains— without 
contravening  the  position  of  the  naturalists — a  fact  which 
every  amateur  recognized,  namely,  that  it  takes  far  more 
of  an  artist  to  compose  an  impressionist  picture  than  a 
plain,  downright,  sharply  focused  one.  Too  much  can 
hardly  be  said  of  the  beauty  of  Dr.  Emerson's  own 
work;  but  Dr.  Emerson's  precepts  followed  by  a  be- 
ginner arelikely  to  give  sorry  pictures  of  woolly  ground, 
and  foliage  that  appears  to  have  been  out  ginning 
cotton  ! 

VII.  In    removing    or  replacing   the  slides  of  your 
plate-holder,  take  your  tima      At  least,  take  enough  of 
your  time  to  be  deliberate  and  not  to  jar  the  camera. 
The  slightest  jar  will  show  in  the  image. 

VIII.  Use  orthochromatic  plates. 

IX.  Try  the   tentative  method  of  development     Be 
patient  with  your  negatives.     Festina  Lente!     An  hour 

12  177 


An  Adventure  in  Photography 


is  well  spent  developing  a  really  beautiful  negative. 
Two  or  three  negatives  are  enough  to  develop  in  one 
evening. 

X.  Decide  what  plate,  what  developer,  what  printing 
process  will  serve  you  best,  and  concentrate  your  efforts 
on  that.     The  specialist  has  as  great  a  field  in  photog- 
raphy as  anywhere  else. 

XI.  Buy  all  the  photographic  books  and  papers  that 
you  can  afford,  and  read  them.     Make  the  acquaintance 
of  professional  photographers,  and  learn  what  you  can 
from  them.     In  many  cases  it  is  a  good  plan  to  have 
your  printing  (in  any  kind  of  paper  which  it  is  not 
convenient  for  you  to  manage)  done  for  you  by  them. 
Business    relations   will    facilitate   the   interchange    of 
thought. 

XII.  Constantly,   while    you  walk  or  ride  or  drive, 
study  the  scenery  with  an  imaginary  lens  between  you 
and  it.     Compose  imaginary  pictures  out  of  the  land- 
scape.    Notice  the  varied  lighting.     In  fine,  if  you  can't 
be  an  artist,  be  as  much  of  an  artist  as  you  can. 

And,  whether  you  ever  learn  to  draw  real  pictures 
with  the  sun  or  not,  you  surely  will  learn  to  behold  new 
beauties  in  the  familiar  face  that  blesses  us  every  clav. 
Because  you  have  learned  the  order  of  the  shining  of 
the  sun  in  photographs,  you  will  find  yourself  watching 
it  in  pictures,  and  from  your  study  of  the  quality  of 

scenery  in  nature  you  will  recognize  when  a  man  shall 
178 


To  Amateurs  Only 


have  told  the  truth  about  nature  on  canvas.  You  ma\' 
not  become  an  artist,  but  you  will  become  a  lover  of 
art. 

"  I  think  what  we  have  gained  from  photography  is 
worth  all  the  money  and  the  trouble  it  has  cost  us," 
said  I  to  Jane. 

"  It  is  worth  more  !  "  said  Jane. 


179 


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